Past and Present by Zaratan Volume 2
by levi2000a1
Summary: My continuation of the story. 'Past and Present' written by Zaratan. He only wrote the first six chapters of it and hasn't updated it since 2010. This is my version of an ending for it. Please read "Past and Present by Zaratan Volume 1" for the background of the story, or read the original without any of my edits. "Past and Present" by Zaratan. This story is rated "M" for language.
1. Chapter 1

All characters and places in this story belong to the Disney Corporation, just like Lucasfilm,

ESPN, Pixar, Marvel, Jim Henson Productions and ABC do.

The original creators were Mark McCorkle and Robert Schooley.

I receive nothing for the writing of this story.

If anyone knows Zaratan or can get in touch with him, please let him know that I am doing this. If he give me permission, great. If he doesn't and wants to finish it himself, great. Either way it's a win.

This is the chapter that I wrote and is based on other writings that Zaratan has done.

A special thanks to Cajunbear73 for beta reading this chapter while Temporaryinsanity91 takes some time off to deal with some family heath problems.

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Previously

"Fine then, we won't resolve this and you can continue to make your daughter miserable. I thought you were a better father than that!"

THAT got the reaction Kim was looking for. Ron was on his feet in a heartbeat, stepping right into Kim's face. "You... you..."

She calmly stared hard into Ron's reddening face. "Then we are going to go downstairs and settle this, once and for all. Agreed?"

Ron's fingers flexed repeatedly, fists clenching over and over again. "Fine. You want to do this, we'll do this." He waved his hand towards the basement door that lead to the training room.

Kim turned and opened the door quickly. When it was open, she paused, turning to glare back at the stripper who had yet to move from her son's lap. "And you missy better keep your hands OUT of my son's pants."

The stripper Candy (really Janice, but that wasn't something she told people), eeped loudly and leapt to her feet. "Yes ma'am."

_With one final glare, Kim headed down the stairs, followed right behind by a pissed off Ron Stoppable, who slammed the door behind them._

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She quickly checked the basement as she stepped off the bottom step to make sure that everything that Michelle told her about was where it should be. She'd been here before but not since they'd finished setting things up the way they wanted them. Two thirds of the very large basement was used as a training area and was lit with recessed lights. The remaining third had an overstuffed couch and refrigerator for water, to relax in after a workout. It was lit with low hanging track lights.

The training area itself had a weight machine, with a couple of jump ropes dangling off one of the bars, a treadmill, and an exercycle that were all near the outer walls along with a punching bag while the center of that area had floor mats covering about a 20 by 20 area. The perfect size for a sparring match.

It was the center of the mats that she headed for with Ron following close behind. She thought with them standing in the middle it would help to nudge him into the sparring match with her that he needed. A way to vent his hate, but when she reached the normal position for one of the fighters and turned she saw that he had stopped at the very edge, so they were now 13 feet away. The look on his face screamed his feelings of her that a deaf man could hear. If she hadn't already steeled herself for this meeting, she would have flinched from the hard, _cold _hatred that came pouring from the man that she once called her best friend, her lover.

"What's the matter with you?" he yelled, almost trembling with anger.. "What part of 'stay out of my way' didn't you understand? Or was that just something you managed to forget about before busting in here like you owned the damn place? "

"Hey! I put down the down payment for them so I!…..." she yelled back at him, both of them drowning out the sounds that came from the floor above them as people were leaving.

"Yeah?!" he cut her off. "And I paid it off for them as a wedding present and I was invited to live here till my stuff arrived so you stormed into my home to accuse me of being an unfit father!

"I never accused you of that!"

"NO! You did something worse. You _insinuated _it! You put the idea into half of my daughter's wedding party's minds that I'm an unfit father. Something you don't need to prove, but I'll never be able to disprove it! They'll believe it even though it's based on _nothing_!"

You come busting in here like you're trying to recapture your youth? Sorry the vents aren't big enough for you to crawl through!

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

"The young heroine makes her way into the villain's lair, her normal stealthy entrance disrupted by normal-size ductwork. She finds the young hero surround by minions as a woman tries to tempt the young man over to the side of evil." he mocked as a story narrator.

"She's a stripper and a _whore_!"

"Her name is Janice and she's a first year intern trying to pay off her college loans. She went to the University of Upperton, the same college your mother did. I wonder what she did to pay off hers.

Now where was I? Oh yeah. Seeing their attempts to sway the young hero, the heroine commanded them to cease and desist their efforts as she then went to confront the main villain by insulting him till she lured him into their final encounter by threatening him with the one thing he truly cherished, his daughter's love. You figure you're not done screwing with me so now you're trying to ruin up my relationship with Michelle?"

"You're the one ruining their wedding with your...!"

"Me? You're a fine one to talk! You're the one that just came in here and ruined your own son's bachelor party, making all of his friends think that they needed to get your permission to have a stripper here for his party! "

When she didn't reply because that hadn't been her intention, to break up the party, Ron forged on. " You look like you might be wanting to take her place? Is that it or maybe you were just looking for a date for after the wedding. I know how you liked to make friends with college guys."

"How dare you!" she shouted back at him with her own indignation, now mixed with her own rage. "I told you what happened back then last night! If you hadn't..."

"You told me a story. A lie in other words that makes it sound like it was all my fault! A lie that makes me responsible and you looking like the victim to anybody that will believe it!"

"I didn't lie to you, Ron. I've never lied to you, especially about something like that."

"_Never_?!... _**Never?!**_" he shouted the question back at her in astonishment. "Have you forgotten that Halloween when you lied to me? And what was that about? About you wanting to be with Josh Mankey at a party!"

"Oh grow up. That was all the way back in high school and you weren't the only one I told a white lie to." she answered as she dismissed the accusation. "I can't believe you're bringing that up after all this time. After all we meant to each other."

"Sorry. I didn't know that there was a statute of limitations on lying. A time when a lie is no longer a lie anymore. Grow up." he repeated more to himself. "Funny. If I'd listened to you the first time you ever told me to 'grow up' you'd have spent the night dancing with Eric and Drakken would have taken over the world. I wonder what they would have done with you then. Ever ask yourself about that, or was that something to be forgotten about too?"

"That was a long time ago, Ron.

"And what does time mean to us, Kim? Your first lie happened twenty five years ago. One year later we were dating. A little over a year after that we were...lovers, or so I thought. Maybe just fuck buddies to you. But less than a year after that you broke up with me and then nothing for the next twenty three years.

When we do meet again, what do I get at that party? You looked at me with that look of horror on your face, like you just found you stepped in a pile of dog crap at a party and everybody knew it."

"I was surprised...and in shock!"

"So was **I **but at least I said something. I was at least able to say 'hello.' What did you say to me after all those years, huh? What did you say to your former best friend? Your boyfriend, your so-called lover? He screamed the question at her, but then quietly gave the answer.

Nothing.

That's what you said.

Nothing."

That's when it hit me that even though your husband had passed away a few years ago and you were alone you still didn't want anything to do with me.

"Well you could have called me!" she countered holding back her tears of anger and regret.

"Why? Why should I have called you? You had the life you wanted. You had the life you _really_ wanted, with the **man** you wanted... The man you dumped me for. Why should I try and worm my way back into that perfect little life like a pathetic _loser,_ after you kicked me to the side?"

After all the time I thought that someday you might get in touch with me just to say 'hello,' or finally say 'goodbye' or even 'kiss my ass,'...nothing. You just sent your little mouthpiece, your Metatron, the voice of Kim _almighty_, over to talk to me. All she wanted was to find out what in the hell I was doing there or what I wanted from you, like we were still friends. And just like before, she didn't want to listen to _anything_ I had to say about what went down back then. She even said hello to me the same way she said goodbye to me. The only thing she didn't do was call me a '**bastard'** loud enough to wake up Hana from her nap like the last time.

"I didn't... Wait.' she stopped herself as she grew confused. "What are you talking about? Monique didn't say anything about calling you anything. She said she just turned and stormed off after you told her...about Bonnie being..."

"So now you're trying to blame Monique for you breaking up with _me_?"

"_**No!**_" shouted Kim as her anger came back full force. "I'm not trying to blame her for anything, even if it was her idea to let you heal a little before I tried to apologize to you. She was the one that..."

"_Heal_?" questioned Ron. "_**Heal**_? Good God, woman! You ripped my heart out that night. I was bleeding out and you thought it best to wait before even trying to stop the bleeding? Come on Kim. You can come up with a better story than that."

"It's not a story, Goddamn it! It's the truth! Why won't you believe me?" she yelled and pleaded at the same time.

"Because, I may not be as good or as fast as my dad, but I can still add things up.

One: You said you were doing it because you heard that I had no real friends and I never went out so you were only doing it for me, yet you didn't even ask me why. Didn't even consider I had a reason for staying in my room all the time."

"You were lonely and missed me. The same way I missed you." she said.

"Yeah. I was, but I had a reason. A really stupid reason looking back on things but I had a reason."

"Why would you do that to yourself Ron?"

"Because I was _studying_!" he screamed, which stunned her into a momentary silence. "I had a plan. I never told it to you because I wanted it to be a surprise if it worked and if it didn't, it would have been another stupid pipe dream on my part. I'd made the Dean's list that first semester. If I'd made it again, two semesters in a row, that would have gotten my grade point average up high _enough_ so I could _transfer_ to your school and we could be together again."

"But why didn't you tell your parents? They were the ones that told me you were so miserable at school."

"Of course I was miserable. I was missing you and I was having to do something I'd always hated doing.** Studying**! I never told my folks because if I'd told them, they would have told your folks, then they would have told you. End of surprise."

"Two: If you had been sorry back then, about what you said, you could have had Wade fix you up a ride and been there in four hours. Four fucking hours!"

"Well you could have answered the phone!" she said as she held back her tears from that major mistake on her part. "I tried to call you but you wouldn't answer and the people on your floor said you didn't want to talk to me."

"Because I didn't need to feel worse by hearing you tell me that even though your just broke up with me, even though you had me crying, I couldn't stand to hear you tell me... you still wanted to be JUST friends. It was a full day after that before I started drinking."

"Three: You said you hadn't been seeing anyone. That there wasn't another guy."

"There wasn't, Ron."

"Bullshit. Like I said, I can do the math. Three months after you didn't say anything to me, three months after Monique wouldn't listen to a thing I had to say and slapped me and labeled me a bastard on my parents' own front porch, you were knocked up and getting married."

"How...?"

"Good God Kim. Every channel carried the news about that except the Mouse Network! When the kids first came to visit and I first found out they were getting married, they were joking about how he was marrying and older woman and she was robbing the cradle. By three months. Three _fucking_ month's difference!

Three months, so that means you were on your back with your legs spread and banging Michael's father less than two months after you dumped me and _I_ became the 'bastard of Middleton.'"

"I didn't meet Joshua till after I found out that Bonnie was pregnant!"

"It took 'twelve stinking years' for us to kiss the first time, Kim, two years before we...before we... had _sex_, so are you telling me that it only took you** two** months to get over our breakup, meet someone else, fall in love and get _pregnant_? You must have been _really _torn up about us then? Especially with all of the "_We_ have to be careful." and all the different methods of BC we used... That must have been only with me because none of that applied to _him_."

"Alright! That's enough!" she shouted. She had come here ready for a fight to help him move on, thinking she knew all the facts and would educate him one way or the other, but she hadn't been ready for this. She hadn't known about Monique slapping him that day and calling him a bastard in front of his family's home. Kim had told her to get out as soon as she found out why Ron and that... that skank whore were getting married, not giving her a chance to say anymore. She hadn't known about why Ron had shut himself from people at college to try and get the grades he needed to transfer just so they could be together. Worst of all, she hadn't known that Ron had figured out how long after that terrible day that her son was conceived.

"You're right! There! Satisfied? When we were coming home from break, his family and girlfriend were driving up to get him and had a wreck. All three of them were killed instantly. By the time I went back to college, I was so distraught and he was still in mourning and tore up that 'yes!' We managed to find a moment of comfort with each other. It was supposed to have been a one night thing and neither one of us was thinking and I got pregnant with Michael. We got married because of Michael and the only reason we stayed married was because of Michael! Is that what you wanted to hear? That I did the same thing _you_ did? That I've been hiding the facts that Michael was a total accident? That he came from two people that hardly knew each other instead of two people that were in love and were just careless one time? Is that what you wanted to hear? Does that make you feel any better?"

After a moment's silence, Ron said, "You might want to ask Michael about that. You're standing under a vent return that carries the sound though out the house and if he is still upstairs, then he just heard everything you said."

Looking up over her head at the small metal grill in the ceiling, she knew what he'd said was true because when they were looking at the house to buy Kim had gone upstairs while they remained in the basement as they talked about what they could do with it for their needs. While she was upstairs, she could hear them plain as day and the two would have 'initiated' the basement then if she hadn't interrupted them.

"Michael?" she called out softly hoping that she didn't get an answer, but after almost a minute, her hopes were crushed as she heard his voice answer.

"Mom. I'm a...I'm a gonna step outside and call Michelle. I didn't realize...

You always told me to be 'totally' honest with you. I guess that was only meant to be a one-way street."

"Michael, we didn't want you to think of yourself as an accident, that you weren't wanted."

"Mom. It didn't matter to me _how_ I was started. Only how I was loved as I grew up. I just wish you and Dad would have trusted me to know the difference."

Kim closed her eyes as she heard his footsteps heading to the front door as once again in her life, she wished she could go back in time far enough to unsay something that she knew she should have never said in the first place.

And for the first time in twenty three years, a part of Ron Stoppable, a part he thought had died one night after a call on his Kimmunicator had ended his relationship with her, he felt sorry for his former girlfriend.

He had always tried to be as honest as he could be with his daughter as she grew up, thinking that some of the times he hadn't been honest with Kim in the past was just more reasons she broke up with him when she found someone better.

With his daughter though, he'd adopted the old philosophy of "Don't ask, don't tell." If she didn't ask, he wouldn't tell, but just two days ago, she'd asked him and he told her. He'd told her how both he and her mother were both drunk having had a breakup with the people they'd loved. He told her she'd been conceived at a college party. And she'd taken it in stride, even making a joke about her friend Janine being conceived at a Britney Spears concert, whoever that was. His trust and faith in his daughter had been well placed, but this eventual talk had worried him ever since his divorce was finalized with Bonnie and he knew it would be him alone doing the talking.

Wanting to say something to Kim, but not knowing what, all he could say was, "Kim, I didn't..."

The look she shot him burned away any feelings of sorrow he felt as her own anger and shame took over. She quickly took off the flimsy blouse she was wearing and took a fighting stance as she looked at him with her own hate finally showing.

The reasons she came here were forgotten because at that moment, all she wanted to do was take her feelings out on the man that had forced her to reveal some of her secrets that she'd buried from the outside world, her family and herself. Once again she hated Ron Stoppable and what he'd done to her, but this time she wasn't going to run away crying. This time she was going to fight and make him pay.

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Janis Ian's 'Aftertones', from the Album 'Aftertones', Columbia Records, 1976:

Sometimes it's all too much to say aloud.  
The Sound's a shroud.  
The meanings crowd.

Sometimes the words are painful to the ear.  
They disappear and nothing's clear.  
And all that's left of me are aftertones.  
I take them home.  
We live alone.

But I remember chains of melody.  
It pleases me.  
This song's for free,

Within the mem'ries of our life gone by,  
Afraid to die, we learn to lie.  
And measure out the time in coffee spoons.  
In fading suns and dying moons.  
Till all that's left to see are aftertones.  
And no one knows where meaning goes.

But I remember chains of melody.  
It pleases me.  
This song's for free.

And, ooo, I like the sound  
Of harmony from time to time.  
I really do believe  
In some kind of tomorrow  
When it speaks to me.

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To Be Continued...

As always, if you have a question about something or you find an error, drop me a note or put it in a comment.


	2. Past and Present by Zaratan V2 Chap 2

All characters and places in this story belong to the Disney Corporation, just like Lucasfilm,

ESPN, Pixar, Marvel, Jim Henson Productions and ABC do.

The original creators were Mark McCorkle and Robert Schooley.

I receive nothing for the writing of this story.

If anyone knows Zaratan or can get in touch with him, please let him know that I am doing

this. If he gives me permission, great. If he doesn't and wants to finish it himself, great. Either way it's a win.

Once again I'd like to thank Cajunbear73 for beta reading this chapter while Temporaryinsanity91 takes some time off to deal with some family heath problems.

I can now understand why Zaratan felt a little overwhelmed by the reaction to his original story. 18 people following it, 15 people listed it as one of their favorite stories and 18 reviews after only one chapter. Wow!

[ I wish I could get this kind of reaction to one of my stories that was totally mine. :) ]

Anyway, not all of the reviews were _totally _favorable. Mostly so, but some not so much.

To everyone that was expecting the big blowout fight we all imagined, all I can say is sorry. No matter how emotionally ready for it we, and K/R were, they weren't intellectually ready for it. I had to build it up a little to give them some real reasons to fight, and to get Kimberly Ann off that high horse she was sitting on, willing to make a sacrifice like that for someone she hadn't talked to since before her son was born and someone that she only thought of "from time to time?" Puh-leese.

For a _very few _people that think I got the whole thing wrong and should drastically change it, the answer is 'no.' I never thought I would please everyone with this conclusion, that would just be too two-pid to even consider. Although I read and relish any and all suggestions from everybody, there is only one person that will get me to change it a lot from my outline of actions and events, but Zaratan has been quiet for a few years now, hence the reason I'm doing this in the first place.

I _hope_ to update this story once a week. It may not happen that way but that's what I _hope_ to do. At this rate it will take six or seven weeks to complete. Time will tell since real life has bad habits of interrupting people without warning.

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Kim was beyond bristling. It looked like she was going to charge: her head was lowered, her shoulders were up, and she was _glaring_ at him like he was waving a red flag in front of a bull getting ready to charge. But she stood there and tried to hold herself in check as she stammered, "You...You..."

His momentary feelings of sorrow having been burned away, Ron stood there looking defiantly back at her and said, "Go ahead Kim. Say it! Call me what you've probably called me whenever you happened to grace me with your thoughts. **_Say it!"_**

Her anger burned and the word came easily to her lips. "_You **Bastard!**"_ It shocked her how easily that word Monique had started using to refer to him, once she and Kim had started talking again, came out. It shocked her how _much_ she meant it too and that shock drained a little of her own anger from her.

"See? That wasn't so hard now was it?" Ron said as he paced the edge of the practice mat, keeping a close eye on her as if he half-expected her to do something as his own fire rekindled. "Ron the _bastard_ and Bonnie the _skank whore_. How many times have you and Monique called us by those titles and had a good laugh about it over the years?"

Even though she was mad as hell, her curiosity was piqued. "Okay Stoppable. Explain something to me. You claim Monique gave you the title 'bastard' that day on your front porch, so who gave Bonnie...her title?'"

Not knowing what kind of game she was trying to play with him this time, he decided to go along with it, just to see if he could trip her up in her own lies. "Two days after that little 'show' you and Monique put on for me; Bonnie needed some more clothes since her father had already thrown most of hers away. Mom went to buy some that might cheer her up a little, so guess where she went."

"The Smarty Mart?" Kim said remembering his family's shopping habits.

"Club Banana." he replied as if the answer should have been obvious. "She wanted to get something that might cheer **her** up, remember?"

"I remember. I remember I was so decimated by seeing the man I loved with the woman I hated, that I ran home and …" she barely managed to say through her gritted teeth.

"Yeah!" interrupted Ron. "I forgot that part of your story. I don't remember anything about your family kicking you out of home. I don't remember anyone saying anything about how your parents reacted when they found out that you, their precious and perfect little Kimmie-cub, was pregnant. Did they disown you and call you a little slut? Did they kick you out of your own _home_ and tell you to go live on the streets with the other hookers?! "

Kim's own parents were shocked to say the least at first, but after they got past that, they were more supportive than she could have expected, under the circumstances. Her father though, seemed to become reserved, often looking like the smile he wore was fake, and he only wore it when someone was looking. He tended to hide a lot behind his newspaper. He didn't come out of that till his grandson was born.

Her silence told Ron what he wanted to know so he went on. "Mom went in and I guess your best friend..."

"_You_ were my best friend."

"I used to be a lot of things. That all changed when you dumped me."

Not giving her a chance to reply this time, Ron went on. "**She** went in and Monique either didn't recognize her or was too _busy_ talking to her audience to notice, telling them the tale of how poor Kim Possible's boyfriend got drunk at a frat party and got that skank whore Bonnie Rockwaller knocked up and had to marry her, breaking _your_ heart. And it was all that_ bastard's_ fault. She just happened to leave out anything about you breaking up with me first, so the whole town blamed me and Bonnie. Only one person in this town would listen to my side of it…Only one.

It wasn't long till the hate letters and such started coming to the house addressed to _The Bastard and The Skank Whore_, warning that bad things would start happening if the two of us didn't get out of town. All courtesy of the Kim Possible Fan Club."

"So you ran away like a coward?"

"I had other people to think about besides myself. Some of those threats included Bonnie, Mom and Dad…and even **Hana**!" He yelled back at her to try and justify himself.

"And you blame me for that? I wasn't even in the state when that happened."

"Maybe not, but your mouthpiece, your new best friend, your sidekick was and it made a much better story for her to tell it, then _you_."

"I was so mad at her for her advice to not going to talk to you that night that it was almost a _year_ before I even _spoke_ to her. In fact it was years before we got to be friends again. And I didn't know a thing about any rumors about you and...and..."

"How many?", he asked suddenly calm.

"How _many_? How many what?"

"How many months before you two started talking again? How many years till you became friends again?" he asked as the calmness disappeared and the volume of his questioning increased with each question. "Less than _five_? Less than _three?_"

"Sounds like a pretty light sentence to me, but then I got _life_ with the only chance at possible parole coming because of our children."

"_Shut up Ron! Just **shut up!**_" she finally yelled at him. "I'm sick and tired of listening to you _**piss** and **moan** _about your life. _Yours and...Bonnie's_. We both know right now the only way we're going to get this out of our systems is to fight it out. Something you've probably wanted to do since you were _stupid_ enough to throw your Kimmunicator away, so we might as well get it out of the way right.

Who knows? You might even get in a few lucky shots." she added, trying to taunt him into acting without thinking, like he used to do, but his reaction wasn't what she expected. It was the combined look of confusion, anger and astonishment on his face that confused her.

"You...? You want to fight me Kim?"

"Yes." was her first response. "Right now I want nothing better than a chance to get in a few shots to make you pay for my son finding out how he came to be and insulting my mother. That is unless you're too scared you'll get _hurt_. We use to spar."

"We use to do a lot of things..." he said to more himself as his expression softened almost to the point that Kim could imagine him looking if they hadn't broken up so long ago. It didn't last long as he snapped back to reality and said, "And I didn't insult your mother. I only pointed out that she had to pay off her school loans too. I remember her talking about having to bus tables every night as she worked through her internship. You're the one that called that girl a whore because she took a job that paid. Some people have to work their way through life the hard way and they can't live off their reputation."

"What in the hell is that supposed to mean Ron?" she demanded as she growled out his name. "I've earned everything I've accomplished through hard work because I put in the time."

"I never said you didn't. I'm only wondering if you would have gotten the high profile cases, the choice assignments if you hadn't gotten that little _Gold Star_ on the top of your report card about defeating the big green guys."

"That was entirely _your_ idea Stoppable so don't go trying to blame me for..."

"I'm not trying to blame you for anything. I just wanted to see if you'd ever, even considered the possibility."

She had. She'd gotten some of the bigger cases that helped her stand out to the higher ups right off the bat. It'd been hard back then to break her old habits and for her to start relying on people other than her old teammates, Wade had totally disappeared shortly after she left Middleton and went back to college, but she'd gotten through it.

"Who the hell do you think you are?"

"_Me?_ Forgettable. Easily Forgettable…At least according to you."

"I didn't forget who you were or what we had together when _you_ threw it away for a one night stand with **_Bonnie_**!" she yelled back at him. "I had to get on with my life for my family and I got over it! Something you never did apparently."

_"No. I merely got though it!_" he thought to himself. There were several things he kept locked in his heart that he'd never really gotten over or understood. The breakup was one, although he was sure he understood why it happened. It happened because he wasn't...enough. Handsome enough, smart enough, coordinated enough, good enough, rich enough. Just fill in the blank with any of them 'cause he wasn't. _Then_.

He'd changed most of those things in his life when he was trying to make his marriage with Bonnie work, but in the end that wasn't enough either. He hadn't gotten over that either because her final words to him haunted his mind and she never explained what she'd meant by them. Maybe they were just to torture his soul or keep him guessing for the rest of his life.

"This is for your own good."

He'd talked to Michelle about them when she asked about why they got divorced. She'd said that when she and her mother had tried to connect during the dinners for just the two of them that she'd given her the same reason but would never explain. That almost led to words that almost got them thrown out of one of his own restaurants.

The death of...a good friend was another thing he'd never gotten over. Just gotten through, but he didn't have time to think about that now since Kim looked like she wanted to dismember him where he stood.

"What_ever_!" Kim almost screamed at him. "You're just stalling now 'cause you're afraid I'll beat the crap out of you. Let's just get this match underway and be done with it."

"Match? You mean a sparring match?"

"Of course. What were you expecting?"

"I thought you wanted a _fight_."

Her moment of confusion gave him a chance to explain. "A sparring match is like one of Michelle's teas parties when she was a little girl, all show and pretend, not really real. All rules and safe. A _fight_ is real with real consequences with real broken bones. No rules. No quarter given, taken or expected. Now which do you want, because of it's a sparring match, you can take your ass to the gym. You might be able to find some kid there you can beat."

"I'll have you know I know 16 styles of Kung Fu, I'm also Deputy Director of Global Justice and a martial arts teacher. I think I can handle myself against _you_ just _fine_."

"Pardon me. I should have said 'some kid you could _impress_.' You knew 16 styles of Kung Fu back in high school so that doesn't impress me. And Hana could have beaten any member of GJ back when she was _eight_ so that impresses me even less. What you used, and Shego did too, was very big, very flashy and dramatic moves. More like Jackie Chan. I only know one style which in the advanced stages is more like Bruce Lee. Maximum effect, minimum effort."

"Bullshit! I don't care if you are a Monkey Master."

"Magician." he corrected her.

"What?"

"The level after _Master_ is _Magician_."

"Fine then." she spat out. "_Magician_. Let's just find out who wins."

"Okay then Kim. Let's find out." he said as he slipped his shoes off and left them in front of his feet. Still standing off the edge of the mats, he assumed a casual stance as he said, "Attack me."

It didn't help her temper to be spoken to like she was back when she first started to study martial arts. Her instructor would have said something like 'attack me,' so he could test her abilities so far as what she'd learned and practiced. Time for Ron to learn what she could do. She charged his position, her intention was to move to close the distance between them and then attack, but she'd taken no more than two steps when his right foot flipped one of his shoes up and he hit it with an open palm. As it came right at her head like a Kim-seeking missile, she blocked and dodged it, making her first mistake of their fight, when she blinked. The basement went pitch black without any light even coming through the small windows above the couch.

Stopping in her tracks, she said, "Using some of Hana's tricks Ron? Who did you have turn off the power?" She started to move her way towards the weight machine. She thought he might try something like this.

"No one." Came his voice from behind her. "And I'm not using one of Hana's _tricks_. She used one of mine." His sound of his voice then sounded like it was to her immediate right as he added, "Just like this one."

"No one turned off the power. I just used my own bio-electrical field to turn the lights off. No one is standing by the breaker box. Just you, headed for the weight machine to try and get one the kids' jump ropes to swing over your head to try and find me."

_"Damn it!_" she thought to herself. That had been what she was going for. What she said was, "I thought we were going to fight. How are we going to do that if I can't see?"

"You were suppose to attack me." he said, his voice now sounding like he was standing an arm's length in front of her. "And so far you're doing a pretty piss poor job of it. Hana said you didn't even come close to hitting her when she 'talked' to you."

Still moving to get the ropes, she said, "I suppose her breaking into my home was your idea. Trying to scare me?"

"Nope. I didn't know anything about it till after the fact. That was all her and she probably wouldn't have done it if you hadn't pissed her off trying to pretend you didn't know what she'd been doing with her life."

"Why would she think I was pretending? It's not as if I'd been keeping tabs on her." She judged she was only a few feet from where she judged the ropes were. She wanted to keep him talking till she got them.

"Remember her saying something about doing the 'save the world thing' that we... you used to do?"

"You were there _**too**_!" she said, now that she reached the crossbars of the machine and only had to locate the skip ropes that were hanging from it.

"Naah. I was just the bumbling sidekick there only for comic relief. The distraction so _you_ could save the world. Now if she was saving the world, better I might add than even you use to do, I wonder who would have given her rides to where she had to be. Some people that thought they owed her favors certainly, but a lot of those rides came from a certain government agency that only used two initials to identify themselves with. One that she carried out some missions for in exchange _for_ those rides. Can you guess which agency that was Miss Deputy Director of G. J.?"

"Oh, and I've already moved the jump ropes."

"I...I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Now either the Deputy Director had been kept totally in the dark about what goes on in her own agency or she just didn't care to give credit to someone else when they do good work, especially when that person's last name is _Stoppable._ Which do you think is the more plausible scenario?"

"The Director must have kept all that from me, thinking that it would only stir up old memories that I didn't want brought up again?"

"Yeah, Betty always impressed me to be a soft hearted _person_." he said barley keeping his sarcasm from dripping on floor, requiring a mop to clean it up. "Maybe you should have done a little more checking before you started telling people things they know are lies."

"I'm telling you the truth damn it! I didn't know about Hana. I didn't know about what Monique did, but I'm telling you the truth. What do I have to do to convince you?" she demanded, her anger and frustration plainly coloring the tone of her voice.

Silence followed as she gave her statement a little time to soak in. She knew her side of things sounded weak compared to what he must be thinking, but he was right about something. She should have checked some things out a little more than she had, but then she really wasn't expecting to have to.

Finally he broken the silence when he said in the same sarcastic tone he had before, "Alright _Mrs. Sanders_. Because I still remember what I still consider ' the best times of my life' and what I, at least, thought our relationship meant, I'll give you a chance. One chance to convince me that you are tell me the truth. Answer one question. Just one, truthfully, and I'll try and listen to your side and believe."

"All right Ron."she answered after collecting herself and trying to let her feelings not cloud her good judgement. "Ask your question."

"According to your story, you never meant to break up with me. You were so torn up by what you saw as my dumping you over Bonnie, that you ran back to college and in less than three months hooked up with your future husband and performed an _act of indiscretion_, which caused you to get pregnant and get married. Now that's the exact same thing that happened to Bonnie and me with her getting pregnant. Now the question is, if I became the _bastard_ and Bonnie became the _skank whore_ of Middleton because of what we did, what does that make you?"

"What did you ask?" she asked him, not really believing what she was hearing.

Saying the words slowly and softly, he said "You heard me. If I was the bastard and Bonnie was the skank whore and you did the same thing that we did, what does that make you? What name would you be called?"

She quickly thought about all the things that Bonnie had done to her...them, not only causing the breakup but every comment, dirty trick and lie she'd said about her..them even back in high school and he wanted her to compare herself to Bonnie? Without anymore than a seconds though, she quietly gave her answer breaking the silence like a thunder clap.

"Fuck you Stoppable."

So much for her one chance. Her anger left her as the frustration set in of what she'd _not_ accomplished so far this night. She'd learned some things about her now distant past, mistakes that had come back to haunt her, both with Ron, Monique and her son. She'd learned that maybe Monique was right and maybe Ron had changed. Changed so much that the man she thought she knew, was no longer there. At least for her. She thought it would be a simple job to push his buttons to get him into a fight to fully vent on her. She had gotten him to vent alright, but it was like expecting an old locomotive to totally vent its full head of steam after blowing the whistle several times. It was still headed down the tracks at full speed and only warning people to get out of its way.

"Damn it, Ron!" she finally said, her voice not hiding her emotions. "This isn't working out the way we wanted it to. Maybe it never will."

"We?" he quietly asked after a moment.

"You were suppose to fight me and maybe finally get it out of your system so we could all get through this wedding, like a family coming together."

_"We?"_ he repeated only not as quietly this time.

"The kids and me."

"When did Michelle...?" his question trailed off as the lights came back on, almost blinding Kim with their sudden brightness. She saw that he was standing in the same spot he had been before the lights went out. The only sign that he had moved at all was the two jump ropes lying next to _both_ of his shoes on the floor in front of him.

"Last night, after Hana left. She wanted me to do something to get you to move on with your life. I thought that giving you a chance to strike back at me would..."

"Michelle _knew_ you were going to do _this_? Without saying anything to me about it? Without talking to me about it?"

"Well...yes."

"She...you expected me to feel better after hitting _you_ a few times? Like some man that feels _better_ after beating on a _woman_ or a _child?_" his own anger building with in him at the implications of what the two women thought about what he 'needed.'

He moved over to near the couch and picked up an old style landline cordless phone and called his daughter to see if Kim was telling the truth.

"Daddy?" she asked immediately when she answered her micro cellular phone, her voice sounding like she'd been crying. "Daddy, I'm still about thirty minutes away. Michael already called me and told me..."

"Michelle." The tone of his voice surprised her, almost shocked her into silence with its mixture of hurt and anger mixed together. "Did you ask...Michael's mother to come here tonight to try and manipulate me, make me jump through her hoops into doing something that I normally wouldn't do?"

Her heart beat too long in answering his question, which answered his question before she said anything. "Daddy I didn't know she was going to..."

"After what I told you she did to me all those years ago? Michelle, you should have said something. I thought you could talk to me about anything, I thought we could talk about anything."

"Daddy, we both know you need to move on with your life and..."

"I thought I had some say in that."

"Daddy, you need this." and then she added something to explain her desire to help him through it. "This is for your own good."

As soon as she said it, she gasped at what had come out of her mouth trying to take back the words. The same words her mother had said to him the day their divorce became final. Her parting words that hurt him for so long.

"I...I didn't mean it Daddy. At least not the way they came out." she said almost crying again into her phone, but all she heard in response was silence. "Please don't be angry with me."

"I'm...I'm not angry with you Michelle. I'm just...I'm just a little..." he said as he tried to hold back his own tears. "A little disappointed right now."

He'd never said that to his daughter. Never even thought it about her or their relationship. He put the phone back into its cradle and stared at it for a full minute before it started ringing, Michelle trying to call back. He told Michael earlier that he was afraid to put his heart out there to be crushed a third time. He'd never expected that third time to come from his daughter.

He looked up at Kim and she saw the expression he probably had on his face when she'd said the wrong thing to him over a Kimmunicator some twenty three years ago. It broke her heart to see him like that.

Even more when he said, "Go home Mrs. Sanders. Go home to the comfort of the house you built with your husband and family. The place where your life happened. That life you didn't want me involved in, in anyway shape or form. I'll make sure that you never have to involve yourself in something like this again."

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

"I'll go back to...well...my home is gone now. The house is already sold and since Michelle would rather talk to you about...things… then me, I've lost the only thing that gave me a reason to keep going all these years.

You win the fight, Mrs. Sanders.

Again."

He turned and headed for the stairs, his head down, emotionally devastated. Her own feelings of anger forgotten at seeing him like that, she knew she had to do something. Something to slap him into...

She made up her mind to return to her original plan. He'd never see it coming now. Even though he would hate her for the rest of her life, and Michael and Michelle probably would too, she thought she knew what had to be done.

"Hey! Stoppable! Tell me one thing before you run away and hide from everybody that cares anything about you."

He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and waited.

Taking a deep breath and silently praying to God for forgiveness, since he would probably be the only one that could forgive her for what she was going to do, she asked, "Just how many men did Michelle sleep with before she found one that would marry her?"

Ron head jerked up and he turned to look back at her over his shoulder.

"I guess she inherited more than some of her looks from her mother. Although I hadn't realized that being a _slut_ was an inheritable _trait_!"

xxxxxxx

To Be Continued...

Now...they are ready to rumble.

As always, if you have a question about something or you find an error, drop me a note or put it in a comment.


	3. Volume 2 Chapter 3 or Chapter 9

All characters and places in this story belong to the Disney Corporation, just like Lucasfilm,

ESPN, Pixar, Marvel, Jim Henson Productions and ABC do.

The original creators were Mark McCorkle and Robert Schooley.

I receive nothing for the writing of this story.

If anyone knows Zaratan or can get in touch with him, please let him know that I am doing

this. If he give me permission, great. If he doesn't and wants to finish it himself, great. Either way it's a win.

Once again I'd like to thank Cajunbear73 for beta reading this chapter while Temporaryinsanity91 takes some time off to deal with some family heath problems.

I would like to apologize for the shortness of this chapter and I hope to make it up next week, but I wanted to keep the story going for those that are reading it as it comes out.

_Katara: This is just going to be a bunch of guys throwing rocks at each other, isn't it?_

_Sokka: That's what I paid for._

_xxxxxxxxxxx_

Previously

Taking a deep breath and silently praying to God for forgiveness, since he would probably be the only one that could forgive her for what she was going to do, she asked, "Just how many men did Michelle sleep with before she found one that would marry her?"

Ron head jerked up and he turned to look back at her over his shoulder.

_"I guess she inherited more than just some of her looks from her mother. Although I hadn't realized the being a slut was an inheritable trait." _

xxxxxxxxxxx

"_Anger is always the shortest distance to a mistake."_

xxxxxxxxxxx

IIn her head, Kim had seen this playing out in a totally different way. She'd thought that their kids' idea of all of them getting together after the parties and having them all sit down with the kids taking their parents roles, having _them_ argue it out while Kim and Ron just sat there, only speaking if they had something to add or clarify.

That might have worked for Ron and her, but what would that have put Michael and Michelle through? They might well have inherited the 'sins of their parents,' causing trouble in their relationship with each other. That wasn't acceptable to Kim and she doubted it would have been for Ron, too.

This was the only thing she could think of to help him work through the anger from the pain she'd put him through back then. If he needed a couple of shots at her to work through this and get on with his life, then that's what she was willing to do if it meant it would help her best friend.

"_Former best friend.__"_, Monique's correction from their lunch earlier that day came back to haunt her. _'__Moniqu_e_.__'_ , Kim said to herself as she hadn't known about her friend's part in what happened on his porch after she ran off crying that day and what she'd done the days that followed. She knew that as soon as Monique told her about Bonnie being pregnant, Kim had ordered her out of her room, never giving her a chance to say anything else. Could she have started the rumors thinking she was supporting her friend?

Rumors that only added salt to the wounds Kim had inflicted? No wonder Ron had overreacted when they talked that first night at the party, and that _second_ slap to the face only reinforced his feelings of being betrayed. She would have to have a long talk with Monique after _this_ was over.

If she was able to, that is.

Kim knew that she ran the risk of being hurt by her decision to try and handle things her own way tonight, but not _this_ way, or this much, and not her. His anger was much greater than she thought, much deeper, and Kim bringing Michelle into the mess only provided the last straw. The straw that broke Ron was more than he could handle: The idea of his daughter betraying him…too.

Ron's eyes burned with the fire of his emotions just for a second after she'd accused Michelle of being a slut. Just long enough for her to see them before he closed them again and stood there in silence. No matter what else came from this, the emotionally broken man that had been walking away from Kim, his daughter, his _family_, was now gone, and was replaced by...by an _unknown_.

His demeanor went neutral as his chin slumped to his chest for only a few seconds. When his head rose again to face her, there was an unreadable expression there, almost devoid of any emotion. This was _not_ what she'd been expecting him to do. She'd expected him to run at her like a very angry nine year old on a sugar rush and curse her, maybe even taking a few swings at her, but not _this_...this _calmness_.

He turned around and started walking back towards the mat, stiffly removing his outer jacket as he walked, leaving his upper torso clad in a short sleeved shirt, and for the first time since their reunion, she got a better idea of his upper body strength. She was starting to have second thoughts about her plan. The jacket was off by the time he reached the mat's edge, and lying on the floor as he removed his shoes. His gaze never leaving Kim.

"Don't use your mystical monkey powers." she said. "That would be…"

"Cheating.", he finished her statement. With his both shoes off, he stepped onto the mat. She looked into his eyes and wondered who he was because this man had the look of a person that could do anything and have no remorse about what he'd done. She'd once seen that look before in the eyes of a killer hired to assassinate a nine year old girl as a warning to her father about testifying. He had two other daughters.

"Defend yourself.", he flatly said as a teacher might say to slow student.

"_What?__"_, she asked, trying to break him out of that flat calm.

"You tried attacking and failed. Now try defending yourself."

She readied herself and wondered if she'd been wrong about this being the same Ron that she loved...use to love so long ago.

He moved quicker than any person she'd ever seen without some sort of assistance. Faster than one of Drakken's Bebes and _much_ faster than when he wore her first battle suit. He attacked with a flurry of chops, slashes and thrusts. She blocked, dodged or deflected each one and felt as if she was moving in slow motion.

She also found that she had better not try to directly block any more of his hits. That area of her forearm felt like he'd hit her with a brick and it was all she could do not to rub it to ease the pain.

After his initial attack, he backed off and returned to his starting point on the mat, giving her a chance to breathe. It had just been an opening round to test and see what his opponent was capable of. If so, she started to think that she might be in trouble. She thought to try a little banter like she use to use against Shego, either to get an emotional reaction out of him or just to reassure her that she was alright.. She wasn't sure which.

"You've gotten better since the last time we fought."

He stared at her and without blinking or showing any emotions, answered, "You haven't."

After a few more seconds of silence, "Defend yourself."

This time he was almost a blur of motion, and the next thing Kim knew, the heel of Ron's hand was pressed against the underside of her nose; she was a few pounds of pressure away from bone shards in her brain. She froze, not quite daring to breathe.

Releasing, he growled at her as he moved back, returning once again to the same spot on the mat he started from.

His face finally started to show some emotions. She just didn't understand what she thought she saw. Anger? Hate? Frustration?

"Defend _yourself!_", he growled at her.

Moving even quicker than before, he came at her, still delivering a series of quick attacks that she barely managed to avoid as she tried to counterattack, something which Ron blocked and dodged with apparent ease till he saw an opening. The flat hand punch he hit Kim in the sternum with sent her back several feet as fast as a bullet. Just as he hit her, she had the most peculiar event of her life happen: she had an out of body experience.

Just as his hit landed, she found herself looking down at them from above; time had stopped. She saw his arm's extension or how much force he'd put into the punch. His arm wasn't fully extended. If it had been the best she could have hoped for would have been several ribs broken where they were attached to the sternum, which could have punctured a lung the next time she moved.

The worst that could have happened would have been the sternum giving way enough to bend in and rupturing the pericardium, or the sack around her heart. She would have bled out in less than a minute if that had happened.

Then suddenly she was back in her own body watching Ron again return to his starting point. His frustration clearly showing on his face now as his hands started showing signs of tremors.

Holding a hand to her sternum, "What in the _hell_ did you just do?" she demanded as she broke out of her fighting stance.

"Defend yourself!" he almost growled the command at her even louder than before.

"Not until you.."

"You have four seconds to prepare yourself before I attack." he snapped back.

Trying to change tactics, she said, "I didn't really mean what I said about..."

He started coming. His movements almost a blur, but this time she had a plan. She'd planned to let his speed work against him by throwing high kick to his head and allowing him to move into it or back out of its range. She would then do a flip and go into a single handstand to deliver a second attack at his stomach to take some of the wind out of his sails and get them back on equal ground.

As he approached, she started into her first kick, but instead of connecting with Ron's head or him stopping short, he started to duck beneath it. She adjusted to aim her second kick at his head but in the time it took her to switch to a one-handed handstand, he'd ducked below where she could aim it. At the same time she saw he was going to do a leg sweep to take out her single arm that now had her full weight on it. If he connected it would break her arm, so she pushed off the floor, knowing that for a few seconds she would be suspended in midair. There was no choice in the matter.

As soon as her body was parallel to the floor, she had another out of body experience as time seemed to stop. She was standing to the side and she could see herself floating, but as she looked to be held in that position, Ron came out of nowhere and was on the other side of her. He put his knee under her spine somewhere about the T-9 to T-12 vertebrae. His arms raised and came down on either side of his knee, but once again they had no real force behind them. If he'd used much force, with gravity bring her down as well as his strikes, it would have severed her spinal column at that point, leaving her to become a paraplegic. Dead from the waist down.

She wanted to scream out to him but she was back in her body before that could happen. As she felt herself coming down against his knee, he moved it and was gone. She hit the floor, doing a kip-up to regain her feet again, and there was Ron, standing right where he started just like before. This time though, she could see his whole body shaking with emotions as he let out a small cry of frustration.

He was fighting two fights. The one with her, which he was winning, and the one with himself. That battle was still undecided.

He just stood there, in a fighting stance shaking, looking like he'd forgotten what he was doing or that she was even there.

When she gently called his name, he looked up at her, his eyes full of unshed tears, and when he finally focused on her she saw one escape and run down his cheek. "The man you knew as Ron is _dead_. A big part of him died when you _dumped_ him…It just took a while for death to catch up, because now he's lost the only thing left that kept him going. The **only** thing he had left."

"Ron, I'm sorry..."

"Sorry doesn't change anything! Sorry doesn't take away all the nights I spent thinking that I screwed up by not being good enough for you and _could never be good enough for you!_ Sorry doesn't change what you did to me _then_ and it sure as _**hell**_ doesn't change what you said about my daughter _now!_"

Then Ron snapped, "Defend yourself!" This time it came out as a shout of rage and instead of waiting for her to prepare herself, he started moving towards her. This time however, he moved at a normal pace. When he came in range, they started exchanging their attempted strikes and this time was much more even than before. Blocks, dodges, parries and counters went by at a dizzying speed. It even looked like Kim might be winning, until he landed a two-fingered strike to her right leg, which went as stiff and rigid as an icicle. It wasn't a physical pressure point that Ron had struck. It was an acupuncture point.

Stunned, Kim made a limping retreat, trying to defend herself and regain control of the limb, but Ron pressed his attack and he paralyzed a blocking arm as well.

As she fell to the mat, she screamed out, "I give up! You win Ron! You win!" But, he was way beyond hearing her, let alone stopping at this point. He turned her enough to strike a spot above the base of her throat with one finger, and her entire body went rigid.

She knew that spot. It was an area above her tenth cranial nerve or the vagus nerve. An area martial artist avoided unless they meant to kill because when the vagus nerve is triggered with enough force, the victim will go into convulsions and then cardiac arrest. There was no undoing it once it was hit.

She couldn't move. She couldn't speak. She could barely blink. All she could do was stare up at Ron as she waited for the convulsions to start.

Ron reached down, picked her up and carried her over to the sofa at the other end of the room and sat her down on it. She felt even more helpless than before since all she could do was look at him as he started falling to pieces.

xxxxxxxxxxx

To Be Continued... yeah.. Really.

A part of the fight scene (The conclusion of it.) was borrowed, _with permission,_ from the story "Bleeding Through," written by Mattk, also know as Seraph4377 over at Deviant Art.

It wasn't that I was to lazy to write it, it was because it so perfectly described what I was wanting for that ending to the fight.

As always, if you have a question about something or you find an error, drop me a note or put it in a comment.


	4. Chapter 4 Vol 2 or Chapter 10

All characters and places in this story belong to the Disney Corporation, just like Lucasfilm,

ESPN, Pixar, Marvel, Jim Henson Productions and ABC do.

The original creators were Mark McCorkle and Robert Schooley.

I receive nothing for the writing of this story.

If anyone knows Zaratan or can get in touch with him, please let him know that I am doing this. If he give me permission, great. If he doesn't and wants to finish it himself, great. Either way it's a win.

Once again I'd like to thank Cajunbear73 for beta reading this chapter while Temporaryinsanity91 takes some time off to deal with some family heath problems. I really do appreciate the help.

I would like to apologize for the shortness of this chapter, but when offered the chance to get in a few extra days work pops up, you grab it. Especially when you're working part time. I was going to include two other 'events' in this chapter but that may take another week to complete so to keep the story going for those that are reading it as it comes out, here's a slightly abbreviated chapter.

**Please don't forget that t****he Voting has starting for the KP Fannies for 2013 and will end on ****July 21st. This is a perfect chance for the readers to support the writers, stories or even the types of story that you prefer. **

_xxxxxxxxxxx_

Previously

As she fell to the mat, she screamed out, "I give up! You win Ron! You win!"_ B_ut, he was way beyond hearing her, let alone stopping at this point. He turned her enough to strike a spot above the base of her throat with one finger, and her entire body went rigid.

She knew that spot. It was an area above her tenth cranial nerve or the vagus nerve. An area martial artists avoided unless they meant to kill because when the vagus nerve is triggered with enough force, the victim will go into convulsions and then cardiac arrest. There was no undoing it once it was hit.

She couldn't move. She couldn't speak. She could barely blink. All she could do was stare up at Ron as she waited for the convulsions to start.

Ron reached down, picked her up and carried her over to the sofa at the other end of the room and sat her down on it. She felt even more helpless than before since all she could do was look at him as he started falling in on himself.

xxxxxxxxxxx

_Lub-dub_, went her heart as the color disappeared from her vision while she waited for the rhythm to go erratic and burn itself out in a matter of seconds.

_Lub-dub_

She watched Ron as he entered and left her limited field of vision as he ranted back and forth, his face contorted with anger and _hatred_. His chest expanding and contracting from the force of his shouting; his eyes wide, a frantic look in them, verging on fear.

_Lub-dub_

"Do you have any idea what you almost made me **DO**?...Do _You_? **DO YOU?!**", he demanded of her, while she…was unable to answer.

_Lub-dub_.

"I almost...", he seemed to have a fit, "ended it...once and for all!", he stammered out. "One centimeter lower or two degrees difference and you'd be sitting there waiting to _die_ instead of just being paralyzed for the next twenty minutes or so."

_Lub_-...**Paralyzed!?** She wasn't going to _die_? He had somehow managed to miss the vagus nerve and hit the nerve cluster _beneath it?_ But...That was _impossible!_

She'd tried for _years_ to accomplish that move on dummies but they all registered strikes to the overlaying nerve that would result in _death_ had it been on a live individual.

"I didn't come here to disrupt your _precious life!_ I only came here to see my daughter get married to the man she loves. If you'd just stayed away, like I asked you to last night, I would have been gone after the kids left for their honeymoon.", he seethed, his eyes boring into hers. "Back to the west coast…because of some _problem_ or other with moving the corporate office. Gone from Middleton and again out of your life…just like you wanted, for the past couple of decades.

Waving a hand, "That little boohoo you gave me last night about how _sorry_ you were for how things turned out back then, was just so _thoughtful!_" Ron snarled. "And about as sincere as a politician's smile. That entire damn spiel was only about _you_ and what _you_ needed. What _you_ needed to make _you _feel **better**."

"_Me_? I was just **trash!** Someone to be erased from your memory like a bad computer file.", he said looking down sadly.

Looking into her eyes, with a fire in his, "Do you know how I know that?"

"Your son."

"Michelle _knew_ who Kim Possible was; I use to tell her stories _allll_ about us. You, me, Wade and Rufus.", he said looking a little _lost_. "I use to think they were the best times of my life…", he drifted.

His face hard, "Michelle just didn't know your married name."

Jerking his chin to her, "What stories did _you_ tell Michael about those times?", he sneered, "Surely you must have told him a few. Yet he _never_ made the connection between Michelle _Stoppable_ and the Ron _Stoppable_ from your stories."

"Unless…Unless you never **told** him any…or if you did, you just left out the name of your _bumbling_ sidekick…", he snorted, "Because it wasn't worth mentioning."

Her mind racing, _"I apologized about that because I wanted to give us both closure."_, she recalled, _"And I never told Michael about you because it was too painful to __**me**__…..Because __**I**__ was the one that ruined it. For both of us."_, Kim's eyes lost focus while thinking back.

Taking in her lack of focus on him, "I'M TALKING TO YOU!" he screamed.

Tearing up, the only response she was able to give, her mental answer, "_No. You're not. You are __**yelling **__at me." _Which was about the same way they'd been communicating to each other the two previous times they'd 'talked.'; the both of them.

Then a question that caught her totally off-guard.

"Why?"

"Why do you hate me so much?"

"I can understand your kicking me to the curb because I wasn't good enough for you. I can even understand that little show you and Monique put on at my front porch that day," she mentally flinched, "wanting to embarrass me in front of my family and the neighbors.", he said so lost and so forlorn.

"But why?"

"Is it because I didn't find a hole to crawl in and stay there after you dumped me long distance because you didn't want to face me?"

"Is it because I didn't crumble under the pressure of getting married, then divorced and raising a daughter on my own without any help from you? A daughter I thought loved and respected me…..until tonight."

"Is it because the 'only good enough to be your sidekick or stand-in boyfriend,' the _loser_ somehow managed to build a multimillion dollar company mostly by himself and managed to not only survive _without you_ but actually _thrive?_"

"Or is it because you think Michelle really isn't good enough for your son, because of her father and mother, so you want to tear her apart by tearing down what's left of her family?", anguish pouring out.

Through tears she couldn't wipe away that started flowing down her face over what she'd done to him…again, she looked at him and saw the horror etched on his features. He looked as horrified and destroyed as she felt.

So helpless, so lost and for the first time since they broke up, so truly alone.

He was actually shaking now, his facial muscles twitching looking like he was losing his battle to maintain control.

Turning to face her straight on, almost straddling her knees, he said, "So I was supposed to fight you tonight, just to get everything out of my system.", he said grimly. "This was the great _plan_ that you and my daughter came up with?", he snorted.

"You came here to sacrifice a few bumps and bruises just to make _you_ feel better, never mind the fact that you could claim, while being all black and blue at the wedding, that you did it for _my_ good, just so you could be the hero again. And it would make me out to be the big, evil bad guy after you accused me of being an unfit father."

His eyes cold, "How many more people wouldn't believe that?" Sneering, "It's just our hometown _hero_ trying to help out the town _loser_ again. The man who probably spanked or beat his daughter while she grew up. That's probably why Kim Possible broke up with him and why his wife left him."

"Don't tell me that's not what you expected to happen.", he said condescendingly, "You know, the only two times you _really_ hurt me was when you dumped me and that one time when you couldn't control your emotions."

Faux-thoughtfully, "I know it wasn't like when you were mind controlled, but I thought even with that _moodulator_ chip on you, you still had some control when you threw me through that hotdog stand. I should have known better after that." he said as he turned his visual focus to stare at a point off to his left.

"_He has it all wrong." _she thought. _"I was..."_, then she **remembered**. She didn't have control of her emotions when she hurt him; physically. She knew what she was doing then, she was just so _angry_ with him that she couldn't stop herself.

Then she remembered what _had_ happened when she was mind controlled, when both she _and_ Shego were mind controlled and Drakken ordered them to "take care," of Ron and Rufus.

Ron had his hands tied behind his back and was literally helpless when she and Shego attacked him. He managed to get his hands out from behind his back and maneuvered them so Shego cut his bindings with her first attack. He then was able to fend off both their attacks and lock all of Drakken's henchmen in their barracks while still avoiding them, stalling for time while her brothers finished preparing their silicon phase disruptor so they could safely remove those mind controlling chips.

She'd remembered it wrong all these years.

"Maybe you're right." His voice snapped her attention back to the here and now. He'd turned back to face her. Putting his hands on the back of the couch on either side of her head, he leaned in till his face was only inches from hers. "Maybe I should let it _allll_ out. Let all the twenty three years of self-contempt, anger and hate out against the person I blame for _everything_.", a hissing whisper.

He stood back up, now staring at her, his voice that of someone she'd never known and would never want to know.

"Maybe _that_ would be a good thing.", he said as he pulled back his fist and prepared to strike.

It would be one thing for her to get hurt in a fight, even a fight where she was totally outmatched like the one she just been in, but it was another thing for something like this to happen when she couldn't even move her eyes or blink voluntarily. What would _that_ do to Ron when he couldn't even bring himself to hurt her when she _had_ a chance to defend herself?

Even if she could have flinched, or even blinked, it wouldn't have mattered as his fist smashed into a space well above her head and off to the right. The sound of glass breaking and wood splintering just before they fell on the couch told her that he'd broken open one of the displayed ribbons or medals the kids had hung on the walls.

With his face once again mere inches from hers, an almost deranged look on it, he said, "Just one problem Mrs. Sanders. That person," he moved in close and whispered in her ear. "isn't you."

Standing back up and crossing his arms, which gave her a chance to see the blood on his right hand from smashing the glass, he said. "You're not the one that slapped me on my own porch that day, calling me a _bastard!_ You're not the one that slapped me after pretending that nothing had ever happened between us.", he paused to let it sink in. "Like that day had never happened or just wasn't worth remembering and you're not the one, according to _your_ story, that came up with the idea of waiting a full _month_ before talking to me."

"After I take it out against that person...then according to what you came here to do, everything will be okay.", Ron casually said.

Nonchalantly, "Of course you'll be losing your current best friend,", he shrugged, "but you've done that before."

His eyes devoid of emotion, "You'll get over it."

Then leaning down to make sure she was seeing him face to face. "And when you come to take me or my body away for what I've done, you'll be the hero again…having captured, or _killed_, the bad guy."

Seeing her tear covered face up close, "Aw. Isn't that enough Kimmie or do you want something more?" Since she couldn't answer him, he went on, "Okay, I have one last gift for you, just to show _my_ appreciation for all you've done for me."

He reached over on the couch and picked up the medal that had been on display on the wall and showed it to her. "Remember _this_ Mrs. Sanders? It's the medal the President gave me in that very small and _quite_ secret ceremony you wanted me to attend.", he said dangling it from a hand. "Just the President…your folks…my folks…you…..and me."

Looking at it, 'I didn't want it. All I wanted back then was to make sure you were safe and sound so we could be together. But you kept pushing me and prodding me to go to Washington." A small laugh, "I even convinced myself it was because you were actually proud of me." An even bigger laugh tinged with more anger than humor. "How stupid was that? You just wanted…", he snorted, "wanted to meet the President. Just another little gold star to go on you report card that only a _few_ people would ever know about. _You_ were the one that wanted this."

"Not me."

He placed it over her head and down around her neck, blood dripping on her from the cuts on his hand.

"Still not enough?" he asked after looking at his handiwork and the tears that still flowed down her cheeks. "Well here's the cherry to top it all off for you.", he said before he went over to the base of the stairs where there were several wall switches and rheostats. He started turning off the lights in the basement, all but the three in the track lighting that shone down on the couch itself.

Those he turned up to full brightness which, in the surrounding darkness, almost blinded Kim.

When came back to her, he reached up and turned off the two end lights, leaving only the middle one shining it's narrow beam of light down on her. "After all, what good is being the hero with a medal if you can't be in the spotlight? Right Mrs. Sanders?"

"Now I have to do one thing before I go take care of business. I have to try and have a chat with an old friend. Possibly the best friend I ever had.", he mocked. "Oh! And don't worry, you'll be up and fine in about twenty minutes or so, so you'll have _plenty_ of time to be the hero,", his hands palm-up, waving to the light, "basking in the spotlight.", he taunted.

With this he backed away, disappearing in the surrounding darkness to head up the stairs. She heard him pause as he added. "Just remember Mrs. Sander, being in the spotlight too long can blind you to what's happening around you; a person can lose sight of those around them…The people that helped out to put that person in the spotlight…So much so, that you just might forget that they had even been there…..or that you even _cared_.", his pauses cutting like a knife.

As she heard him climbing the stairs, something inside her _released_ and she was able to openly sob. She had been so proud of him when he went to get his medal, because someone else _saw_ that Ron was a hero. Not only battling the bad guys and saving the world, but overcoming his own fears as he did so.

She _hadn't_ forgotten him. She stretched the truth a lot when she'd told her son that she thought about him 'from time to time.' Truth was there wasn't a day that went by that he _hadn't_ entered her thoughts at one time or another.

And there hadn't been a day that she hadn't cursed herself because she'd let her own fears stop her from calling him to say she was sorry and try to repair what her actions had done to them so long ago.

Now it was all too late. She finished doing what she'd started that day, twenty-three years ago.

She'd pushed him too far.

She tried to make him do what she'd known he would _never_ be able to do.

She'd tried to get him to hurt her.

Like trying to force a round glass peg through a too-small square hole: Push too hard and something's going to shatter.

xxxxxxxxx

To Be Continued...

As always, if you have a question about something or you find an error, drop me a note or put it in a comment.


	5. Chapter 5 Vol 2 or Chapter 11

All characters and places in this story belong to the Disney Corporation, just like Lucasfilm,

ESPN, Pixar, Marvel, Jim Henson Productions and ABC do.

The original creators were Mark McCorkle and Robert Schooley.

I receive nothing for the writing of this story.

If anyone knows Zaratan or can get in touch with him, please let him know that I am doing this. If he give me permission, great. If he doesn't and wants to finish it himself, great. Either way it's a win.

Once again I'd like to thank Cajunbear73 for beta reading this chapter while Temporaryinsanity91 takes some time off to deal with some family heath problems. I really do appreciate the help.

I would like to apologize for the time in between updates. I haven't been feeling all that great lately and I had a chance to pick up some extra hours at work. Extra hours at work are like sex after thirty five years of marriage. You get it when you can and you're damn happy it was offered. :)

Again, taking a quote from Z's original postings "I still can't believe the feedback on this story. It's incredible. Thanks to everyone who is reading."

And to those that are leaving reviews with no way for me to respond directly, please sign up or log in so I can do so. I really want to thank you and respond to some of the topics you've mentioned.

Please don't forget that voting for the Fannie Awards has entered it's second round since there were ties in a total of nine different categories. See below for the list if you haven't voted yet.

xxxxxxxxxxx

_Previously:_

She _hadn't _forgotten him. She stretched the truth a lot when she'd told her son that she only thought about him 'from time to time.' Truth was there wasn't a day that went by that he _hadn't_ entered her thoughts at one time or another.

And there hadn't been a day that she hadn't cursed herself because she'd let her own fears stop her from calling him to say she was sorry and try to repair what her actions had done to them so long ago.

Now it was all too late. She finished doing what she'd started that day, twenty-three years ago.

She'd pushed him too far.

She tried to make him do what she'd known he would never be able to do.

She'd tried to get him to hurt her.

Like trying to force a round glass peg through a too-small square hole: Push too hard and something's going to shatter.

xxxxxxxxxxx

As he climbed the basement steps to go and bring the pain to an end, he could almost hear crunching beneath his feet. The sound of his shoes crushing the remaining shards of what was his life. As he heard the 'crunch', 'crunch', 'crunch' of his steps, old and forgotten memories whispered themselves in his ear.

Kim:_ Ron, quit fooling around._

Ron:_ Hey, you know what? It doesn't matter what you think or anybody else thinks._

Ann Possible:_ He's always been prone to drama._

Ron:_ Yeah, you know, all that stuff was _bad KP_, but you know what was worse? Spending a whole summer away from you._

4 year old Michelle as he picked her up at the airport. She was returning from a two week visit to her grandparents. He had only just arrived from spending those same two weeks in Yamanouchi Japan:_ Dadddddy! I missed you so much!_

16 year old Michelle along with Hana and Ron at a funeral service in Yamanouchi.

17 year old Michelle as he was driving home after her date with John Matthews went horribly wrong.

Michelle:_ Thank you for not saying, 'I told you so.' Daddy._

Ron:_ Pumpkin. Mistakes are how we learn and I'm glad you have enough faith in me to call. I'll always be here for you honey. I'll always be here for you till they put me in the ground._

Monique:_ But there's the whole Ron thing._

Bonnie, after the divorce was finalized:_ It's for your own good._

Bates:_ Your friend seems rather troubled._

Monique:_ Trading-up?_

Kim:_ He is bad road!_

Lars:_ You, sir, have lost it!_

Ann Possible, talking about the last piece of pizza: _Go ahead Ron. Help yourself._

Going out on several of Hana's first missions with her. He hadn't wanted his sister to follow in…her footsteps, but Hana was the 'Han' and had a duty to the world and he was her big brother and her own personal Sensei. He just wanted her to be safe.

Kim:_ Mom, he's not a guy, he's RON._

Ron:_ I'm losing everything I ever cared about! _

Kim:_ Oh, so you're not a cheater, a liar, and a thief?_

Dr. Drakken:_ Kim Possible's dopey sidekick!...Whose name I can't seem to recall._

Kim:_ I thought you were a better father than that!"_

Ron:_ Because my best friend Kim will believe me, right, Kim?_

Kim:_ Oh grow up!_

Ron's father:_ Ronald, I think you know what you need to do._

Kim:_ We'll always be tight._

Ron:_ Yeah. Pretty words, Kim._

Professor Dementor:_ Do you think that I am fooled by your mouthful of lies? 'No' is the correct answer!_

_Kim: Monique, you were totally right._

Kim:_ I know, Monique, but a girl has to have standards._

Kim:_ I know what's best for Ron, even if he doesn't._

Kim:_ I love you Ron._

Ron:_ I love you KP._

Kim:_ Ron...I...I think we need to see other people._

Bonnie:_ It's for your own good._

Michelle:_ It's for your own good._

Michelle and Bonnie together:_ It's for your own good._

And then, just as he opened the door from the basement, a memory came to him that he wasn't even sure was real. It happened during the second time he'd ever gotten drunk, right after he'd gotten a call from his parents. A death call.

Bonnie tried to comfort him, to help him through it, and she tried everything, but he was so broken up at the time, nothing worked. And after getting him drunk from a bottle of Scotch that had been a Christmas present from his employees, she attempted to have them make love.

His feelings of inadequacy as a lover after Kim broke up with him were the one thing that he'd not been able to overcome. He'd built his business up to where his family wouldn't have to worry about money, he was a good husband, and a family man that loved his wife and daughter, and they loved him. Bonnie was willing to patiently wait for this one problem he'd had with their relationship and it had looked like it was about to be overcome.

Then Ron told his wife, "I love you..." but as drunk as he was, it wasn't her name that he'd said. It wasn't anybody's name.

It was only two initials.

"K. P."

Though he was so drunk that he wouldn't have been able to stand up and walk two steps without falling down before that moment, he was suddenly stone-cold sober in less than two seconds after he'd uttered those initials. And even though Bonnie pleaded with him, telling him that it didn't matter, still urging him to continue, he curled up on the floor in a fetal position crying and apologizing for what he'd said to her in the most intimate of moments between husband and wife.

She held him and told him it was alright until his stomach rebelled. Whether it was from the emotional upheaval he'd just gone through or the mass quantity of Scotch whiskey he'd drank, she didn't know, but he just made it to the bathroom which was where she found him an hour later, passed out. She washed him up, put him to bed and slept by him, ready to caress his brow when he woke up for a few seconds because of the bad dream he'd had. By morning he couldn't remember a thing other than he'd started drinking again.

One year later, after having reverted to acting like Bonnie _Rockwaller_ from high school instead of the Bonnie _Stoppable_ she'd become, she came to him and demanded a divorce.

Bonnie: _It's for your own good._

It wasn't Bonnie's fault that the marriage went to hell.

It had been his.

It wasn't Monique's fault that his relationship with Kim fell apart.

It had been his own inadequacies.

Kim:_ I thought you were a better father than that!"_

Maybe it was his fault that Michelle no longer trusted him.

He was the one that had caused everything to go to hell.

What should he do now that he was so alone?

Ann Possible: _Go ahead Ron. Help yourself._

_What? What should I do?_

Kim: _Ron, quit fooling around._

Ron's father: _Ronald, I think you know what you need to do._

Gill: _Give it up, Ronnie._

Kim: _Finish this, once and for all._

Ron:_ I can't live without you._

Ron:_ I can't live without you._

Ron:_ I can't live..._

"_Bring the pain to an end."_, he'd just told Kim.

That had been about Monique, but now he saw things differently.

So caught up in the myriad of voices talking, yelling or screaming in his head, Ron didn't hear the person coming up behind him so when he felt the tap on his shoulder, he reacted.

He had the person against the wall before either one of them could blink once, but Ron couldn't seem to make out the identity of the person. It couldn't be Ki...Mrs. Sanders…Not yet anyway.

Looking hard at the person he at first looked like _Eric_, Drakken's creation. Then the face morphed into _Fukushima_. After shaking his head to try and clear it, the person became a tall young man with slightly reddish hair; about six feet tall, with a solid build. But it was his face that stood out. An innocent face. Ron felt that he should know this person but he couldn't put a name to him.

Michelle: _Daddy, this is Michael...my fiancé._

Michael. Michael Sanders. Kim Sanders son. The man that _stole _his daughter's heart, _forcing _him to come back to Middleton, only to have to face...

"Dad? Are you alright?" Michael asked.

Whip-snapping out of his haze, "Don't call me that! Don't you** ever** call me _that!_" Ron yelled at the young man while he held him in place.

For Michael's part, he had no idea how he suddenly came to be so against the wall. He hadn't been pushed or shoved there. He was just suddenly...there. No bumps or bruises, just there. Looking into his soon to be Father-in-law's eyes, they were almost bulging out of their sockets, with a maniacal look to them. At first he wondered what in the hell his _Mother_ had done to the man, but when he didn't see his Mother anywhere, he started wondering what _Ron_ had done to his Mother.

Michelle: _"Daddy!"_

"I don't deserve that name." Ron said, no longer sure who he was talking to. "Soon, you won't even want to call me that.", his eyes starting to lose focus.

The memory flashed in his mind, causing to realize he was _wrong._ Michael hadn't _stolen_ Michelle's heart; she'd given it to him to keep. It wasn't his fault who his mother was and he hadn't forced him to come back to Middleton. Michelle had, and she loved this man. No matter what his daughter had done to him or whether or not she'd taken Mrs. Sander's side, he still loved her and he wouldn't do anything to hurt the man she loved.

"Sir…I don't know what Mom did to you or why she wanted you to fight her, but it was all her idea. Michelle wanted her help, yes, but neither of us wanted to do anything that might hurt you anymore, _especially_ Michelle."

And then, since his Mother still hadn't come up the stairs, "Where is Mom?"

Then with more anger than Ron might have thought possible with someone at_his_ mercy, Michael asked, "Did you hurt her? Where is she?" after seeing the blood on Ron's hand.

Quickly Ron reached out and took Michael's hand and squeezed a spot on it. Michael's body went rigid and he stood there glaring at Ron, his gaze demanding answers.

He started searching Michael's pockets as he said, his voice still sounding slightly demented, "That was a pressure point I pushed and it's referred to as a 'thumb tap.' You'll be fine in about five minutes. I did about the same thing to your Mother only hers will last about ten minutes longer. Then she will be...fine."

Locating Michael's car keys and cell phone, Ron turned to head out the front door, but stopped and went over to Michael and put his hand on his shoulder. "I'm trusting you, Michael. I'm trusting you to take care of my daughter. When the reporters ask you, tell them that you never really trusted me. And make sure Michelle does the same. If she has problems later over...have her ask your Mother. She can help her get over it."

As he turned to leave he looked back, "She knows how to get over...things quickly."

xxxx

Downstairs, Kim tried to make sense of everything that had just happened in the last several minutes. She'd wanted Ron to vent, to take out the anger he felt against her so he could move on with his life. She thought it would be like setting off a loud firecracker or maybe a cherry bomb, but it had been more like a dirty bomb.

One that damaged and affected more than those within the original blast radius.

She hadn't meant what she'd said about Michelle. It was just that he'd looked and sounded so _broken_ over the idea of her involvement in the fight that she wasn't sure what he would do. Her words_ had_ changed that, but they had led to a metamorphosis in him. His feelings of self-destruction now had a different target: _Monique_. And with the abilities she now saw he had, Moni wouldn't stand a chance.

All this because she hadn't known.

She hadn't known about the slap from that day of Kim's own personal hell, or of Monique's involvement in any rumors that were spread in the days following that confrontation. Maybe that had been from a sense of loyalty she had for her best friend. Maybe it had been because Bonnie couldn't put a name to her face or maybe she was mad because she realized that it was her advice that brought her best friend so much pain. Whatever the reasons were for Monique's involvement in a campaign against Ron and Bonnie, Kim hoped to find out for herself.

She had two things on her side to prevent Ron from doing Monique any harm, she hoped. One was that she didn't think Ron had any idea where Monique lived. After all, why should he, after she slapped him again his first night in town. The other was that it would take about an hour to drive from the kid's home to Monique's townhouse in Upperton and if Ron had been right about how long till Kim could move, then she could call GJ HQ and have a team there well ahead of him since there was a transport tube very close to Monique's address.

She hadn't known about Hana's freelance work with Global Justice which just made her feel _incompetent _as well as stupid. She knew about all such people that the agency used, including their real names. The only one that she didn't know much about was the one Betty referred to as "The Little Inn." That was the one that they had discussed from time to time, trying to bring them into the organization, but Kim had never seen any written reports or communications about _Little Inn_. Could that have been Hana?

Kim mentally gave herself a head slap as she knew Hana was the Little Inn. The code name wasn't 'Little Inn', it was Little _In_, as in the Little _In_-Truder. Ron's nickname for his little sister, and Ron had insinuated that he'd taught her the trick with the lights. If Ron had been her teacher then that could explain why he was so many levels above what Kim had expected from him. Why he was so much better than...well, than _her._

As her mind returned to the immediate problem of saving Monique from Ron, and saving Ron from himself if he did anything to her, Kim saw that the two people in her life that she'd called her 'best friends,' were about to be taken from her forever.

And it was all because of her. Because she thought she knew what was best for Ron without having to talk to him about it. As usual.

If she did find herself in the position to stop Ron from hurting Monique, how far would she go to do that? What would she be willing to do or have others do on her orders?

Part of her paralysis broke and she was able to openly cry. She didn't know if she could make the choice between the two people. One that she had known was her best friend so long ago and the one that she'd thought of as her best friend when Ron was no longer there.

xxxx

Five minutes after Ron walked out the door, as soon as he was able to move, Michael started down the steps to see for himself what kind of shape his mother was in. Staggering, as he was still coming out of the paralysis, he had to hold onto the handrail for support. Try as he might, he just couldn't do it as well as he should. Not yet anyway.

As he made his way down the stairs, he wasn't sure if he was more worried about his mother, what she had done to Michelle's father or what she thought she could do to stop the man from doing something terrible. Either to himself or someone else, but when he saw her, sitting slouched on the sofa with blood on her front like Slutty Girl #1 from a teen horror flick, he half stumbled the distance between the bottom step and the couch to make sure she was alive.

As he searched her for any injuries or cuts he anxiously asked, "Mom! Are you alright? Are you hurt?" Any hurt feelings about her comments earlier having been forgotten as unimportant. Even though he could find no indication of any source of the blood, she continued to cry, so he moved so he was directly in front of her. She was able to move her eyes so she could focus on him and he noticed her eyes were blinking in a regular and steady pattern. Just like a variation of an old game they used to play. Twenty questions without words.

"Okay Mom. Once for yes and twice for no?"

One blink.

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

Two blinks.

"Are you in any pain?"

Pause and then one blink.

"Physical pain?"

Two blinks.

"Did Mr. Stoppable do this to you?"

One blink.

"He told me that you'd be like this for another fifteen minutes."

One blink.

"I guess he told you the same thing."

One blink.

Michael wanted to ask what happened, but he couldn't phrase it into a yes or no question. "I take it that things didn't go exactly the way you planned."

She paused long enough for two tears to roll down her cheeks before she blinked twice.

"Mom. If it means anything to you, I'm not mad about what you said earlier about you and Dad. I still love you both. I just wish you would have trusted me and told me the truth because It wouldn't have changed the way I feel about you two since it didn't change the way you two made me feel. Very loved.

She let that sink in a little, wishing she could explain, but time was critical now if she was going to stop Ron from carrying out a major mistake. She started looking at the phone then back to her son. It took her a couple of times before she got her message across, but he went to fetch it so she could call Global Justice to get some men out there to try and head off Ron. But as he picked up the small wireless phone, he said, "Uh oh." The cheap plastic case had been cracked and the numbers were missing, as if from someone gripping it too tight. It might be able to receive a call, but a person would never be able to dial out on it again.

When he showed it to her, Kim's frustration came out in the form of a word. "Cellphone?" Surprising herself that she could speak again, she asked, "Your Cellphone?"

"He took it, along with my car keys."

At first that was good news to her. Michael's phone, along with his car, had GPS chips in them that she could have Global Justice track only needing his permission. If it had been a car that belonged to Ron, then she would have needed a court order to track without his permission. The bad news was that Monique's name and address was listed in his cellphone as a contact number if something should have happen to him. She still had time, but not as much as she originally thought.

"Do you have another phone?"

"Only the old Bakelite phone upstairs, Michelle's grandparents gave it to us as a house warming present. It used to be their home phone."

She checked herself thinking that she might be able to walk, but not very well and not without assistance. Finally she said, "Can you help me up the stairs?"

As they were slowly making their way up the stairs, Kim tried to tell him what had happened after he walked out of the house. About what she'd said about Michelle in order to keep Ron there and maybe still take out his anger and hate on her.

"Mom. He doesn't hate you. He's angry and hurt by what you did, but I don't think he hates you."

"Of course he does Michael. After what I've put him through, some of which I didn't even know about till tonight, hate is about the only thing he _can_ feel towards me."

"No. I talked with him about you a little before things got out of hand. It's not hate. More like regret." he said as he they got to the fixed phone in the living room.

As soon as she saw the old rotary dial phone, she was hit with a flood of memories of much happier days long past. A much younger version of herself calling her folks to get permission to stay for dinner, or maybe have a sleepover at his folks house, or in the old tree house they use to play in. Calling home to tell them that they'd just gotten back from a mission and they were both fine. Much later, calling to make excuses why she was late getting home past her curfew after she and Ron had lost track of time because of a make out session.

Picking up the phone and dialing headquarters, it felt like a club in her hand from its substantial weight and what she was going to have to do.

"This is Assistant Director Kimberly A. Sanders, ID number 672002. I need you to get a squad of agents to the residence of Miss Monique at 104 2007 Raven Drive in Upperton. She is in danger and needs protection from a slender blond man. The man is driving..." here she gave them Michael's car make, model and registration. Also the phone's codes so they could track him. She didn't want to give them Ron's name thinking she was still trying to protect him in case they could still somehow salvage this whole situation. "He is to be considered a Danger Factor of Nine and they must use the utmost caution in apprehending him. If he doesn't surrender, then stun him and bring him to this location."

"Assistant Director, I have to ask since this concerns a person rated above a Danger Factor of Seven, if necessary do they have permission to use lethal force if it is deemed necessary?"

She fell silent from the question, still not knowing what to answer. Kill Ron in order to save Monique or gamble that he would listen to reason and come quietly? She now knew from her fight with the man that he would be able to go through any group of her agents like so much wet toilet paper if he wanted to. She also knew that no matter what, she couldn't give that authorization. She still...

"**No**. They do **not** have permission to use lethal force. I repeat. **No authorization for lethal force is given. Understood?" **

"Understood." was the reply before she was disconnected.

As she hung up the phone, she heard. "What have you done?" It was Michelle. She must have come through the still open door as soon as Kim had dialed the phone. Michael was holding her, both to support her and held her back after having whispered what her father had said before he left.

"_What in the hell have you done?_" she almost screamed at Kim. Breaking away from Michael, she started towards Kim, her voice growing louder with each step. "You were _supposed _to help us. Help _us_ help _him_. What gives you the right to try and force him into a fight? What gives you the right to try and handle this all by yourself going against what we'd planned last night? What gives you the_**fucking right?**_"

Michael reached for her to hold her back again till she heard the whole story, but Michelle jerked free and screamed, "I hate you!" at Kim before allowing him to wrap his arms around her as she broke into tears.

"Michelle. You..n..need to listen to my…reasons for...wh..what I did tonight." stammered Kim. Michelle's words hurt almost as much as her father's had just a little bit ago.

"**No!"** Michelle screamed so loudly that her throat hurt. "You're not my father. You're not even my mother so don't you tell me what you _think I need to do,_ just tell me what _you've_ done to _him_!"

Before Kim could answer, they heard another voice from the open front door. "Yes, Kim...Tell us exactly what you've done."

Looking to the door they saw Hana. Her eyes were ablaze, but that wasn't really what surprised them at all. Standing next to her was another woman, a fortyish, well dressed brunette with the same look in her teal colored eyes as Hana's.

"Mother?" said Michelle in a very confused tone of voice.

Fixing her former high school adversary with a look that could melt glaciers, "Yes…tell us _allll_ what you've gone and done to that poor man _this time _Kaaaay."

"Bonnie?"

xxxxxxxxxxx

To Be Continued...

Next chapter, Bonnie's story.

As always, if you have a question about something or you find an error, drop me a note or put it in a comment.

For anyone that wishes to discuss or argue the idea that Ron could outfight Kim, please drop me a PM. I have my reasons for this and I am more than willing to discuss them with you.

xxxxxxxxxxx

From the KP Fannie Committee

******Hey all,**

So we spent some time checking and re-checking our numbers. It's not fun stuff! _

We ******definitely** have winners in some categories, and we'll be reaching out to them for their victory speeches for the awards ceremony story that we'll be working up.

******However, there are ties in NINE categories.** Earlier we mentioned we might do a runoff round/round 2 voting for those categories where there's a tie, to try to break that tie and be able to declare a winner.

******We're opening up a round 2 of voting ONLY for those categories where there is a tie, and only for those entries tied to win in those categories.**

We'll be using ******weighted voting** to try to make sure there isn't a tie this time, but if round 2 ends and there are still things tied, we'll just award the co-winners.

******With weighted voting, you either pick ONE entry in that category and that gives it 3 points, or you pick TWO entries but tell us which one you feel more strongly about by giving it 2 points, and the other one 1 point.**

******Here's an example ballot:**

******Best Romance:** Story C 3 points

******Best Villain:** Villain D 2 points, Villain B 1 point

******("Story C," "Villain D," and "Villain B," are just stand-ins for whatever you're actually voting for here.)**

Make all of your selections, and then ******send an e-mail to KimmunityFannies AT yahoo DOT com** (we're saying it that way so that FFNet doesn't edit it out) or a ******PM to the KP Fannie Committee FFNet account** (which will end up notifying us at the KimmunityFannies e-mail address) with them.

******Please vote by August 8th 2014.**

******3) Best Minor Character:**

- Electronique from "August the 15th" by Iapsa

- Tara (Kim Possible Rids Again - Prologue) - hotrod2001

******5) Best Songfic:**

- "I'll Be Home For Christmas" by temporaryinsanity91

- "Say Something" by temporaryinsanity91 (based on work by levi2000a1)

******7) Best Crossover/Fusion:**

- "What If We Don't Graduate?" (KP/Mass Effect) by TempestDash

- "A New Redhead Cheerleader - Book I" (KP/Phineas & Ferb) by Sharper the Writer

******8) Best Alternate Pairing:**

- "600) Something Old, Something New, Nothing Stoppable, Everything Possible" by levi2000a1 (Tara/Ned)

- "Rockwaller Sisters" by AngelicInkLing (Bonnie's sisters/Ron)

******9) Best KiGo Story:**

- Storms over Colorado - cwesthawk

- Home is where the Heart is - Lhyaran

******12) Best Romance Story:**

- "Over A Cup of Coco Moo" by AngelicInkLing - Kim/Ron

- "Storms Over Colorado" by cwesthawk - Kim/Shego

******14) Best Action/Adventure Story:**

- "A Gathering of Heroes" by Oreochema

- Vacation from the Norm Bk 2: Journey of Discovery - kgs-wy

- Kim Possible: Rogue - LJ58

- "Fractured" by The Real Sidekick

******17) Most Unique Story:**

- Goody Two Shoes and The Filthy Beast - Mr. Wizard

- "The Apple Really Doesn't Fall Far" by Imyoshi

- "Tara's Tome" by whitem

******30) Best Writer:**

- Imyoshi

- whitem

- Mr. Wizard


	6. Chapter 6 Vol 2 or Chapter 12

All characters and places in this story belong to the Disney Corporation, just like Lucasfilm,

ESPN, Pixar, Marvel, Jim Henson Productions and ABC do.

The original creators were Mark McCorkle and Robert Schooley.

I receive nothing for the writing of this story.

If anyone knows Zaratan or can get in touch with him, please let him know that I am doing

this. If he give me permission, great. If he doesn't and wants to finish it himself, great. Either way it's a win.

Sorry for the long wait between updates but after reaching a point in the action, I've rethought what I was going to do in this chapter and decided to put it on the back burner for now and start over. It was going to be a back story about Bonnie and her side of things from when Monique slapped Ron on his front porch up to when she re-entered the story in the last chapter. It was only suppose to be a chapter long, just something to change the pace a little bit.

But, (what's the opposite of writer's block? Writer's diarrhea?) anyway, I realized that it would take up to three chapters to tell her whole tale and I didn't want that big of a break.

So, I'm going to put what I've written so far aside and save it for a separate story for after this one gets completed.

Once again a big thanks goes to Cajunbear73 for beta reading this chapter and helping to smooth out a bunch of rough spots.

xxxxxxxxxxx

_Previously:_

"**No!"** Michelle screamed so loudly that her throat hurt. "You're not my father. You're not even my mother so don't tell me what you _think I need to do,_ just tell me what _you've_ done to _him_!"

Before Kim could answer, they heard another voice from the open front door. "Yes, Kim...Tell us exactly what you've done."

Looking to the door they saw Hana. Her eyes were ablaze, but that wasn't really what surprised them at all. Standing next to her was another woman, a fortyish, well dressed brunette with the same look in her teal colored eyes as Hana's.

"Mother?" said Michelle in a very confused tone of voice.

Fixing her former high school adversary with a look that could melt glaciers, "Yes…tell us _allll_ what you've gone and done to that poor man _this time _Kaaaay."

"Bonnie?"

_xxxxxxxxxxx_

The floor between the two older women suddenly became a no-man's land as they exchanged icy glares with each other. So much so, the reason for their presence was momentarily forgotten.

Shocked and so very confused, "Mother, what are you doing here?" demanded Michelle as she broke the silence.

The look of contempt directed at Kim quickly softened and almost disappeared as Bonnie turned to her daughter. "Michelle. Your wedding is the day after tomorrow. Where else would I be?"

Exploding in anger, "You never came or gave a _damn_ about anything in my life **before** _Mother!_", Michelle shot back, "Why should this be any different, other than _you_ wanting to make some _grand_ appearance?"

For just an instant, all present thought they might have seen a look of hurt flash across Bonnie's face, just before, "When you were in fourth grade, you played Mary in the school's Christmas program.", her eyes lit up wistfully, with amusement, "Funny having a girl raised up in the Jewish faith play a nice Jewish girl giving birth to Christianity.", she said with a smirk. Then her voice filled with pride, "When you were still in high school you tried out for the Olympic Swim Team in the 50 Meter Butterfly. And even though you'd been bedridden with the flu just three days before, you gave it one _hell_ of a try, failing to make the Team by just twenty-five _hundredths_ of a second. You were so exhausted afterward that your swimming coach had to jump into the pool to get you out and into your Father's waiting arms."

Astounded that her Mother knew about that specific detail, Michelle opened her mouth to reply, but before she could say anything, Bonnie continued.

Her eyes shining, "When you graduated top of your class, your Valedictorian speech was about looking forward to the 'Unknown future', using the people that raised you and their example as a guiding star to point your way." A tear fell as her voice caught, "I was never so proud of your Father and _you_, the woman _he_ had raised you up to be as I was that day."

Warily, "But how do you know these things Mother? Then angrily, 'Did you _hire_ someone to watch me? To _spy_ on me and Dad?"

Shaking her head, "No, I was there each time.", with a sad smile. "I sat far enough in the back so neither you nor your father would see me. I wore sunglasses and a scarf."

Confusion, "I don't understand. Why hide? Did you hate daddy that much? Were you _that_ ashamed of us?", then anger laced Michelle's question.

"No." she answered quickly. "I was never ashamed of you or your Father. Only myself. I loved both of you. Still do."

"But why are you _here_?", interrupted Kim as she indicated 'here' as being this house. Turning to her companion, "And why are you helping her Hana? You had to have brought her here.", she accused. "I thought you hated her as much as you hate me for what we've done to Ron!"

"I do." said Hana looking as uncomfortable as a hungry lioness standing next to a gazelle while being denied attacking it. "It's just that she has something that you _don't_ and if what she told me during the trip over here is true, then you went above and beyond anything _I_ ever felt about either of you."

"So what does she have?"

Eyes narrowing, then looking away, "My trust." Hana said, almost as if she regretted it.

Simultaneously, "What!?" exclaimed Kim and Michelle.

In a low growl, "Tell her so she'll understand.", Hana gestured to Bonnie and the rest.

Bonnie looked to Michelle and said, "I have an imaginary friend and he is huge. His name is Rufus."

More than slightly confused, Kim looked to Michelle for an explanation, but the surprised look on the blonde's face brought her up short. "What does that mean?"

Michelle, still staring at her Mother, when she slowly replied, "It's a code phrase Daddy taught me and Hana."

Picking up where her niece left off, Hana continued. "He was always concerned that someone from his past would come back and try to get retribution against him." A hand wave between her and Michelle, "Maybe through us, so he taught us that phrase and told us that if someone ever came to us and said it, we were trust them and to think of that person the same way we think of him."

Michelle took up where Hana stopped. "And to listen to them as if it were his words."

"That's the reason I brought her here…when she called Mom and Dad.", Hana added.

Almost indignant, "If it was someone from Ron's past Bonnie, then how did you find out about it since you divorced him almost _twenty years_ ago?", Kim shot back.

Matter-of-factly, "He was more concerned about someone from his and _your_ past, Kim." Bonnie replied. "You and Ron did make more than a few enemies in your time.", she retorted with a snark reminiscent of high school. Now looking around, "So where is he? Or are we too late?"

Peering suspiciously at her, "How do you know so much Bonnie?", Kim grilled Bonnie.

Not intimidated in the least, "You came over here just itching to get back at him for what he did to you.", Bonnie shot back, "Trying to get a rise out of him by saying he was a bad father.", her eyes hardened. "Purposely pushing his buttons just to get him to fight you.", she let hang in the air.

"Or am I wrong?", Bonnie fired off a question she also answered.

In Kim's stunned silence, "A piece of advice K, the next time you sit down to have lunch with your _best bitch friend, _you might want to check to see who's sitting in the booth _next_ to **yours**.", Bonnie advised forcefully.

Stunned, Kim's jaw dropped.

Continuing, "Since I was in town, and was trying _one more time_ to get back with my own parents, my two sisters dropped by and just couldn't _wait_ to tell me _all about_ who my daughter's intended husband's _Mother_ was.", she airily said. "They told me what happened at the first party with you _not_ talking to him and then your _BBF_ slapping him.", Bonnie's eyes went cold and Kim visibly flinched. "What happened at the second party…and finally what you planned to do tonight to '_fix'_ things.", she spat.

"It would have worked if..." Kim started to answer back.

"It would never have **worked!**" Bonnie almost screamed at Kim. "Trying to drag him into a fight he couldn't win, no matter what?"

Chagrinned, "Well he did a pretty good job of winning it!", she huffed, her cheeks flushing a little.

Her eyes and voice imploring, "At what cost Kim? …...Think about it…if he had _lost_ then it was just one more blow to his self-esteem...One more example of _proof_ he wasn't good enough for you..." Kim deflated at an implication she knew all too well.

While the redhead contemplated, "And what did he stand to win? …...A chance to _hit_ his daughter's future Mother-in-law and maybe beat her _up_?...Something he would have to _explain_ to his daughter and future son?

From Kim's silence, she pieced together an ending to the 'fight', "What did winning that fight cost him, Kim?", Bonnie straight out demanded.

An awkward silence fell on the room as they waited for Kim's answer, but she was saved from trying to answer a question she couldn't when the phone rang. After Michael answered it he handed it to his Mother saying it was Global Justice Headquarters.

Even more shaken than she was before Kim took the phone from her son and learned that the team was in place. Protocol for a Protection Detail was to locate the person they were to protect, to inform her of the possible threat and then remove her to a 'safe place.'

They then set up several vantage points to apprehend the culprit while tracking the GPS in Michael's car and cell phone. They reported that Monique had been transported to GJHQ and the team at her home was ready. The GPS signals indicated he was only a few miles away. They would contact her again after they had the man in custody.

"So what was all that about? Sending out the troops to try and clean up your little mess?" taunted Bonnie as Kim hung up the phone, and left the line available for a callback from the Team.

Nervously, "Ron sort of...lost it after the fight.", answered Kim.

Incredulous, "'_Sort of'_ mother?", Michael interjected from beside Michelle. "He sounded more like he was going to jump into a volcano!"

"When…he _left_,", Kim said slowly as she tried to explain her actions, "he said he was going to…..end _'the__ pain' _by taking out all of his rage and anger on Monique. The one person he hates more than me. I sent out a GJ Team to intercept him, so maybe we can get him some professional help to..."

Snarky in tone, "I thought you were smarter than that K.", Bonnie interrupted. "He isn't going after your little friend Monique. That's not who he blames for what happened back then.", she shook her head sadly. Then condescendingly, "And it certainly isn't you."

Taken aback, "What?", Kim, now totally confused.

Pressing on, "My mouth moves, words come out, but none seem to get across the drawbridge to the Princess that's locked herself in the tower away from the truth.", Bonnie mocked. Then her voice became serious in tone, "He's gone to kill himself, Kim, to escape the pain he thinks he's caused his daughter because he can't get past this.", sweeping her hand, then pointing, "He can't get past _you_.", at Kim.

Stunned, Kim barely heard the words as Bonnie continued, "He needed _you_ to talk 'to' him. Not 'at' him. Not like two fighters in the ring. Like two 'lovers',", she let hang for a moment, "for lack of a better word."

When Kim still didn't show any sign of understanding, Bonnie said, "Kim, under all the garbage he's heaped upon himself over the years, after twenty years of believing that he wasn't good enough for you, even after the way you _dumped_ him,", she stung the redhead, "he still loves you.", Bonnie told the now reeling woman, "_That's_ why I divorced him. I knew he could never really be happy with me.", she said sadly.

"Oh he could lie to himself and make himself believe that he was happy, but I knew.", she said, her voice rich in familiarity. Looking neutrally to Hana, "He loved me more like he would have you Hana, his sister. You know how brothers and sisters feel about each other." Bonnie said, though only getting a glimpse of what she spoke of from Ron. Her own family, not a shining example for her to learn of such things, she gladly accepted from him what she _never_ got with her sisters.

She looked from Hana to Kim knowing that she had two brothers, but instead of getting a look of understanding like she had with Hana, the look on Kim's face was more of... regret.

When Kim went back to school after her aborted meeting with Ron on his parent's front porch, she hadn't told her family _anything_ about what had happened. All she'd wanted to do was to get away from the pain. She hadn't even told her parents or brothers anything of what had happened that day.

She just wanted to run. She didn't talk to them about that day until she introduced Joshua and had to tell her parents they were going to become grandparents.

Her brothers, it seemed, were not happy when she told them what really happened that day and why. Until that day, all they had to go on were some rumors about the breakup, probably started by Monique, and they had taken it upon themselves to extract some revenge against Ron, for their sister.

So much beyond simple attacks upon their sister's tormentor than sending hate mail to him were they, the twins unleashed a series of 'Spam bombs' on him every time he attempted to login to a computer, rendering it impossible for him to do anything online, even play the games he enjoyed playing.

He found his bank account was mysteriously either deleted or cleared out to zero, and COD packages were delivered to his house at all hours of the day or night.

When Kim told them what really happened, the day she announced they were to become uncles, the shame they felt for what they had done to Ron fought with the anger they now had for their sister for not telling them the truth sooner than she had. By then though, Ron had already moved away and they had no way of apologizing to him for what they had done to him. As a result the relationship between them and their sister was strained beyond anything their family had ever seen on either side. It was so bad, neither twin spoke to her, or her to the twins unless commanded to do so by either parent during holiday meals. That was one Christmas.

The following Christmas when she tried to talk to them to make amends before dinner, she went to them in the living room where they were watching TV, but as soon as she walked into the room, they changed the channel to the animated special, "The Six Tasks of Snowman Hank." She ran crying from the room to their glowers.

The following Thanksgiving Day while they were away at college, they made excuses as to why they couldn't make it home. They even planned for home visits on days when they knew she wouldn't be there.

This was the way things were between them for ten years, and even though things eventually improved between them, it never did get to the way things were before that fateful day.

"I'd hoped, someday, that he would find someone that could replace you.", Bonnie's face fell. "After everything he and his family did for me after my own turned their backs on me…I came to love him.", her smile small, wistful.

Her eyes now boring into Kim's, "That's _why_ I wanted him to find happiness.", she said in complete honesty. "But I was wrong. He was like one of those animals that only mates for life and…_I_…I was only the person he married.", she said bitterly, "Not the person he truly loved."

After a few seconds of silence that felt like an eternity to everyone in the room, Michelle asked, "Mom? Why didn't you tell me these things years ago? Why did you let me hate you when you could have explained all this to me?"

Love in her eyes, "Because your father needed you.", Bonnie said to Michelle. "He needed someone in his life to love other than his parents and his sister. Someone that needed him as much as he needed them and that was you.", she said to a surprised young woman. From behind her, Michael placed his hands on her arms in support as her stance softened.

Frustration now in her voice, "I tried to talk to you the two times we had dinner, but all you wanted to know was why I divorced your Dad.", she lamented. "And when I told you it was for his own good, you didn't understand and you hated me.", Bonnie said sadly. "But that's alright. I did the same thing to him. I made him hate _me_ so he wouldn't blame _himself_ for the divorce." She frowned, "He didn't need anything more to blame himself for."

"You're wrong Bonnie." Kim was finally able to say. "He as much told me he was going after Monique", she declared, "And after everything I did to him, even though I was trying to help him, the only thing he can do _is_ hate me."

Looking to her as she would a slow child, "It'd be easier if he hated you.", Bonnie said feeling pity more than any other emotion for Kim at that moment. "Hate is a so much easier to deal with than love." Hunching over to head level with Kim, "Especially, disappointed love.", her voice low, and sad.

"If he'd hated you all he would have had to do was totally ignore you and pretend you didn't exist.", she said matter-of-factly. Then with a smile like the Bonnie of old, "If that would have pissed you off, well, so much the better.", she snarked and continued before Kim could slip in a word, "Or maybe he could have told Michelle what a bad person you were.", the brunette supposed, looking off in faux contemplation.

Looking back at her, a fire in her eyes, "But he couldn't do either of those things.", Bonnie said. "And why didn't he? Because he may feel a lot of negative things about you Kim, but _hate_ isn't one of them."

After she finished her near-soliloquy, and before anyone could say anything else, the phone rang once again. This time Kim answered it herself before it could ring again.

Formally, "Yes. This is Agent Sanders."

Her eyes widening, "You have?"

Concern in her eyes, "Was anyone hurt?"

Concern again, and in her voice, "Did he offer any resistance?"

"Thank God.", relief in her voice; the others also released a breath they had been holding. "Have an agent drive back my son's car to this address and bring the suspect here as well. Use the transport tubes for that though. That way it will only take you a few minutes to get here. And Good job Captain.", before she hung up the phone.

As the phone handset set in place, Kim breathed a sigh that was mostly relief, but it had a little bit of regret mixed in with it too. Bonnie, it seems, had been wrong about Ron going after Monique, so that meant she was probably wrong about Ron's feelings too. As she considered this, she realized that she never felt as alone as she did right now. Even when her husband Joshua passed away she'd had her friend Monique for support but until she found out if what Ron had told her was true or not, she wouldn't count on her for anything.

With her back still to the group, "They've got him and he gave up peacefully." she announced. "No one got hurt and they are bringing him here."

She slowly turned to face the people in the room and, with great pain in her voice, said, "Once they arrive, I'll take my people and leave.", her face lined with worry. "Hopefully, you can help Ron without me since I only seem to hurt him whenever I think I'm helping.", she sighed. "My presence here would only make matters worse." Looking to Bonnie, Hana, and then the couple, "I'll abide by whatever you decide he needs…even if that means that I..", she faltered, "can no longer visit you or that my presence is no longer desired at your wedding.", she said resolutely, yet sadly to Michael and Michelle. "I'll understand. All I can say is...I am so sorry. To all of you.", she finished, Kim's eyes shining before she started to leave.

"_What?_ Oh no, you don't!" Bonnie interrupted the ensuing silence. "You've screwed things up for Ron, _**again**_, and now you're running off just like _before_, and leaving it up to everybody else to try and clean up _your_ mess?"

Recoiling, "But I.."

Crossing her arms across her chest, "You know, if your _friend_ hadn't stopped Ron that day when she slapped him, I actually thought he was going to chase after you when you ran away like a whipped puppy.", Bonnie shot back, and earned her some very cross looks from everyone in the room. Except from Kim who was holding back tears and staring at her hands, now clasped in front of her.

Ignoring the looks, Bonnie pressed on. "Why did you run away that day, K? Was it because you hated me that much?", her hands at her side, fists clenched. "Me, the girl that it didn't matter how many years she trained or how hard she tried, who could never best **you** at _anything_?", she jabbed at her rival with a 'knife' she withheld all these years.

When only more tears came to Kim's eyes, Bonnie slid that shiv more deeply, "Or was it because you only _thought_ you loved him, when you didn't really love him at all?", her voice rose into a harsh crescendo.

Snapping her head up to Bonnie, Kim screamed, "_**I did love him!**__."_, her eyes sparked dangerously. _"__**You**__** have no Idea how much I loved him!**__"_

Not phased in the least, "Well." Bonnie answered dryly. "That day…it seemed to me that you didn't _love_ him more than you _hated_ me.", her eyes crinkled up in a smirk Kim hadn't seen since her fights with Shego all those years ago, "If you had, you might have stayed and fought for him, or at least told him you loved him instead of just giving up then and there.", she taunted.

A fire suddenly lit in Kim's eyes, the reaction Bonnie had been waiting so very long for, what she wanted from the redhead.

With a look in her teal colored eyes she hadn't had since the 'Cheerleader Candy Sale' in high school when she bested Kim for Head Cheerleader, "Someone that would be willing to help do what was needed,", Bonnie challenged Kim as each inched ever so slightly to the other, "and not run away _this_ time.", closer, "Not do what 'she' thought _best_.", she goaded her old rival as they edged closer still.

And, just as it seemed they were about to come to blows, there came the distinctive sounds of a Global Justice transport tube arriving outside the house.

Standing down, and wiping away tears with the back of her hand, Kim prepared herself to try and talk with Ron. And maybe, after seeing Bonnie in a different light, she felt she might revise her opinion of the woman. That had been one of the things Ron wanted that Kim hadn't been ready give him. That and to clear up a lot of other things, but without the yelling this time.

The team escorted the man in cuffs inside, but as soon as he was in the light, most everybody knew that something was wrong. It was the same jacket that Ron had been wearing, but this man was wearing a cap with the bill pulled down over his eyes. He was also a little taller than Ron and of a slimmer build. The group just stared at him as the Agent in Charge handed over Michael's cell phone. And as he started removing the cuffs, the man raised his head so the others could see his face.

With a sad smile on his face, "Hello Michelle." he said. He then turned enough to face the other women in the room. "Hana. Mrs. Stoppable.", he nodded his greetings.

He then faced Kim and without any trace of a smile "Hello Kim. Long time no see."

The man's face scared Kim. She knew who he was even if she couldn't give a name to the man, but that wasn't what scared her. The man wasn't Ron and if Bonnie had been correct about Ron not going after Monique, could she be correct about Ron wanting to...

Ron was still out there.

xxxxxxxxxxx

To Be Continued...

As always, if you have a question about something or you find an error, drop me a note or put it in a comment.


	7. Chapter 7 or Chapter 13

All characters and places in this story belong to the Disney Corporation, just like Lucasfilm, ESPN, Pixar, Marvel, Jim Henson Productions and ABC do.

The original creators were Mark McCorkle and Robert Schooley.

I receive nothing for the writing of this story.

If anyone knows Zaratan or can get in touch with him, please let him know that I am doing

this. If he give me permission, great. If he doesn't and wants to finish it himself, great. Either way it's a win.

Several reviewers have mentioned the fact that I have this story' genre listed as Angst/Tragedy. I think we have all seen the angst, but it is the tragedy aspect that is throwing some readers off. There are several different definitions of "Tragedy," other than the idea that one of the main characters will die, although that is always a possibility. For this story, I think this abbreviated quote from Wikipedia comes closest.

_Theories of tragedy: Aristotle_

_Aristotle wrote in his work Poetics that tragedy is characterized by seriousness and involves a great person who experiences a reversal of fortune (Peripeteia). Aristotle's definition can include a change of fortune from bad to good as in the Eumenides, but he says that the change from good to bad as in Oedipus Rex is preferable because this induces pity and fear within the spectators. Tragedy results in a catharsis (emotional cleansing) or healing for the audience through their experience of these emotions in response to the suffering of the characters in the drama._

_According to Aristotle, "the structure of the best tragedy should not be simple but complex and one that represents incidents arousing fear and pity—for that is peculiar to this form of art." This reversal of fortune must be caused by the tragic hero's hamartia, which is often mistranslated as a character flaw, but is more correctly translated as a mistake or error in judgment.(since the original Greek etymology traces back to hamartanein, a sporting term that refers to an archer or spear-thrower missing his target). According to Aristotle, "The change to bad fortune which he undergoes is not due to any moral defect or flaw, but a mistake of some kind." The reversal is the inevitable but unforeseen result of some action taken by the hero. It is also a misconception that this reversal can be brought about by a higher power (e.g. the law, the gods, fate, or society), but if a character's downfall is brought about by an external cause, Aristotle describes this as a misadventure and not a tragedy._

_In addition, the tragic hero may achieve some revelation or recognition (anagnorisis-"knowing again" or "knowing back" or "knowing throughout") about human fate, destiny, and the will of the gods. Aristotle terms this sort of recognition "a change from ignorance to awareness of a bond of love or hate."_

That doesn't answer all of your questions? If it did, then this would be the ending of the story and I'm not there yet.

Close.

But not yet.

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Sorry about the long wait for this update, but real life had to remind me that if it could go wrong when you least expected to, it would. Nothing major. Just the family car which both my son and myself depend on to get to and from work decided to blow either a head gasket or a head. Either one will cost more on labor than parts so we had to get an inexpensive replacement vehicle with about everything we had saved back and until we can get it in to be thoroughly checked, I worry every time someone drives it. Makes it kind of hard to concentrate on writing. So, once again a great big 'thank you' to Cajunbear73 for all the work he has done on polishing a corn cob into something worth posting.

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_Previously:_

With a sad smile on his face, "Hello Michelle." he said. He then turned enough to face the other women in the room. "Hana. Mrs. Stoppable.", he nodded his greetings.

He then faced Kim and without any trace of a smile "Hello Kim. Long time no see."

The man's face scared Kim. She knew who he was even if she couldn't give a name to the man, but that wasn't what scared her. The man wasn't Ron and if Bonnie had been correct about Ron not going after Monique, could she be correct about Ron wanting to...

Ron was still out there.

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'_Ron was still out there', _Kim suddenly realized. '_Alone and no idea where',_ rang in her mind as panic started to take hold within her.

Hana broke the silence, "What are you doing here?" With, "Uncle Ned?", from Michelle, right after her.

And then, sadly, "I haven't deserved the _name _Mrs. Stoppable for a long time now." from a remorseful Bonnie. Then with an anger-tinged growl, "And since I no longer want anything to do with the name _Rockwaller_, I go by Miss _Walls_ now."

As he turned back to Bonnie, Kim asked, "Ned? Ned Neezen? The Assistant Manager of Bueno Nacho, Ned?"

He turned back to Kim; a sour look on his face; but before he spoke to Kim, Michelle said, "He is the Assistant Manager for the_ Company._ Daddy trusts him and he runs it when we are on vacation."

"Assistant Manager for Ron's multimillion-dollar chain of _restaurants?_" Kim muttered mostly to herself.

Hearing her, "Yes…and as a matter of fact I am, and I guess I owe _that _to you." Ned replied, half-smile on his face."

"Me?"

With a deep breath, almost like a sigh, "It was the day before he and his wife were to leave for the west coast. Business was kind of slow at that time of the day with only a few people eating inside, but when Ron walked in those still there left, even if they hadn't finished their food."

Kim's jaw dropped, Michael was stunned, the rest glowered.

"Shrugging, "I guess they'd heard the same stories I'd heard."

"Anyway, it was the first time I'd seen him since…..you two came in just before leaving for college.", Ned paused for a while, his grimace softening. "I almost didn't recognize him, he looked so…...", his voice nearly cracked, "so beaten…And he looked worse with each step he took to the counter." The room was silent.

"His eyes never veered towards the booth the two of you always sat in….as he approached.", Ned's eyes took on a far-off gaze. "He looked like…..he'd been crying.", his voice filling with emotion. Bonnie's eyes misted, Michelle's teared up, Hana's narrowed. Michael's and Kim's eyes widened.

Clearing his throat, "When he got to the counter, he ignored my greeting and ordered two small tacos and a small order of nacho chips with cheese; the cheapest things on the menu before he started emptying out his pockets looking for enough loose change to pay for it."

Incredulous, "You mean...Daddy was **that** _broke_?" from Michelle. Throughout her life up to now, she had _never_ seen her father in such a state.

Softly, "Yes dear.", and forlorn of the memory, Bonnie answered. "We had just spent about all we had left on the plane tickets to LA. Your father's uncle was going to put us up at his place till we got on our feet and…...we ah...had some unexpected medical bills to deal with. Plus we had to try and save as much as we could for when you decided to come into the world.", with a smile only a mother could have for such a 'burden' as her child.

"You didn't have _insurance_?" asked an astounded Kim. "You had to have _something_ in order to attend college."

Turning to Kim, a fire in her teal eyes, "My _father,_", Bonnie spat, "canceled my insurance coverage right after he declared me a _slut _and threw me and all of my belongings out into the street.", she shot back at her former rival. "No other insurance group would cover me since I was _already_ pregnant. It was considered a _pre-existing _condition that n_o one_ wanted to cover."

Chiming in, "It was because of those other medical bills that Ron came in to order the food from Bueno Nacho that day.", Ned added. "As the part timers were refilling the cheese into the dispenser, I asked Ron point blank about the stories that had been circulating about him and Bonnie." An uneasy silence filled the room.

"It took a little doing, but he finally told me _his _side of what happened….I think it was because he said I was the only person that ever asked him_ what_ had happened instead of _why_ he could have done those things to _you,"_, he pointed, "Kim." Her cheeks flushed slightly. "After I told him that I believed him, he told me why he was in there at all."

A sad look came over Bonnie as she looked down for a moment before, "It was for his goodbye dinner with Rufus. The little guy had to stay behind when we moved."

Shocked, Kim could only whisper "Why? I thought he would have taken him with you."

Bonnie hesitated, the look of sadness worsened till Hana spoke up, "Bonnie developed a severe allergic reaction to Rufus that threatened the baby."

Reeling at this news, Michelle was speechless at hearing something she never known of before now: Why Rufus had to stay with Grandmother and Grandfather before she was born.

"It wasn't Rufus exactly." Bonnie clarified. "The Doctors found that it was a type of skin mite that can only live off of naked mole rat skin. There wasn't any way to eliminate them from him, so for the sake of the baby, he had to stay behind."

She turned to her daughter, "For you Michelle, he had to live in his plastic tunnels and boxes that had to be kept in a negative-pressure sealed room. The air was vented through filters to kill the mites.", she said to the surprise of all but two.

Her eyes tearing, "It hurt them both so much….to only be able to talk through a little intercom system, it was decided that he be left behind in Middleton so he could at least have free rein of the house again.", Bonnie sadly recounted. "There wasn't any kind of medication for it since there was such a small demand for it."

After a brief pause to allow her words to soak in, "I knew how he felt about the little guy,", Ned continued, "so as I was sacking his order, I put in a couple of his Nacos and I super-sized his order of chips. When he pushed it back telling me I'd gotten the order wrong, that he hadn't paid for the extras, I just told him to have a 'Muy bueno' dinner with Rufus and good luck in LA. I was sure he would do well.", his voice wistful and his eyes misting.

Avoiding looking to Kim, "He thanked me and told me he wouldn't forget this.", Ned recounted. Then gazing to her, "Not many people outside his family had been very kind to him back then, so I remember that moment well.", he said evenly.

Looking to the others, "That was the last I heard from him till years later when Bueno Nacho had to shut down." Shrugging, "Apparently they hadn't paid their taxes for a period of five years and the head of accounting had left the country, so as a result we all lost our jobs.", Ned reflected darkly.

His look hollow, "I made do for a while but in time my unemployment was just about to run out and found it hard to find a job…since I had spoken out in favor of Ron, I had made some enemies along the way….", Ned let hang. "I had no foreseeable future in Middleton as a result, and when I was down to my last dollar, out of the blue, Ron called me and offered me a job as a manager in his restaurant chain….I thought he meant for one of his restaurants, but it was for the whole thing. He even paid for my plane ticket."

Bonnie's, Hana's and Michelle's eyes shone at this; Kim and Michael were stunned.

His voice thick with emotion, "He offered to let me stay at his place till I could get my own. How could I refuse? He gave me back a chance to have a life again instead of having to live with my folks.", Ned faltered at the end and struggled to regain his composure.

In the pause, "But where is he now Uncle Ned?", Michelle demanded, moving towards him. "That's what we need to know right now!", snapping back from her curiosity of the times before she could remember.

Ned took a deep breath, then, "Your father called me just a little while ago and asked me to meet him not far from where I surrendered to those..._gentlemen.", _said as he indicated the GJ agents that left after surrendering everything he had on him to Kim: The car keys, Michael's cell phone, a small metal box and a large manila envelope.

His face took on a haunted look, "He sounded frantic on the phone, like I hadn't heard him sound since just before the Junior Year prom." Kim's cheeks reddened. "Once I saw him though, he looked worse than he had back then. Almost crazed." Motioning to it, "He wanted me to bring that envelope and give the papers in it to you, Michelle."

Looking her in the eyes, "He had his lawyers make them up years ago; they just needed to be served." Cold realization set in immediately with most while one stood fast. "They effectively give you, his parents and Hana complete co-ownership of his restaurants."

Michelle looked from Ned to the others in the room before looking back to him, "I don't care about the restaurants. I don't care about anything other than finding my father.", her face taking on a look the older generation in the room recognized immediately in _her._ "Please help us! Tell us where he went!", she pleaded with him.

Quietly, "Ron said that he was going to have a 'chat' with the best friend he ever had before he had to go and take care of business.", Ned told her.

Jumping in, "What did you two talk about?", Kim interjected.

As if he hadn't heard her, "When I saw him, I tried to get him to come home with me….But he didn't pay any attention to me…He _seemed_…to be listening to voices I couldn't hear…and sometimes he would answer them. I thought he was going to shake my hand but the next thing I knew I couldn't move. I couldn't do anything to stop him." he replied to Michelle.

Then turning to Kim, "And I'm not his 'best' friend.", he said to her flinch. "I'm his good friend, which is why I went ahead and drove to the address he gave me when I was imitating a statue.", a statement that weighed on the redhead. "He told me it might be dangerous, but that's what friends do for one another, isn't it?" Kim's head bowed slightly in shame.

What Ned told them rattled in her mind. "No…", Ned continued, her head came up. "Best friend? He only gave out that title to two individuals in his life.", he peered at her. "Once for you and the other was for...", he let hang.

Her head snapped to him, "For who?" Kim demanded when he paused. Her anger was more towards herself since she felt that she'd betrayed that title all those years ago. "Who did he go to talk to?"

Ned looked at her like she should have known the answer without him having to tell her. "Why Rufus, of course."

"Rufus?" The wheels in her mind went spinning at Ned's answer.

The life expectancy of a naked mole rat varied from authority to another. One might say twenty to thirty years while another might say as low as five years. And after the solemnity expressed previously regarding the naked mole rat, it never dawned on her to think that the little guy was still alive.

"Rufus is still around?"

As a silence fell on the small group, Kim got the feeling that she'd asked a question that nobody wanted to answer and it wasn't till Hana cleared her throat that the silence was broken. "Ahem. No…..He isn't…He passed away three years after they moved away."

To say Kim was ashamed at this point was an understatement.

Quickly shaking out of the emotion, "Then then we have no idea where Ron is." Kim muttered to herself.

"Yes we do!" burst out from Hana. "We just need to get there before he does anything he can't undo. It'd better just be us though.", she said looking to certain individuals, "Too many people and I don't know what he might do.", she said before turning to the door, "I'll drive."

Michelle hurried to Michael and gave him a kiss. "You'd better stay here and give Uncle Ned a ride home when the agents bring your car back. I'll call you as soon as we find him.", she said, her eyes imploring him.

Hana and Michelle each gave Kim hard looks as they started out the door to Hana's car. The feeling of the redhead's responsibility in all of this conveyed in their eyes, which gave Kim second thoughts about going with them or not.

But before Kim faltered, or decided she should not go with them, Bonnie wiped those doubts away. "Come on you two. One way or another, she needs to be there, and you both know it." she growled to her daughter and Hana.

Turning to Kim, "That is, as long as she wants to help and put aside who she is,", an eyebrow rose, "and becomes who she _needs_ to be.", Bonnie said to a now-glaring redhead.

Huffing, "I'll do whatever I need to do, so long as it helps.", Kim said in determination.

Bonnie gave her a slight smile and a grateful nod, "Come on then. We've got a good man to try and save.", before they all entered Hana's car.

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The Headmistress of the Yamanouchi School of Ninjutsu, was finishing her packing for the trip to the United States. She, her husband and two children had been invited to attend the wedding of the only child of the Chosen One.

'_Actually', _she thought as she lightly patted her abdomen which bulged out in front of her, _'Her, her husband and two and a half children.' _The third was due in two months.

Some may have thought she was a little old to be still having children, but she thought it a great honor to show how much she and her husband loved one another as well as their children by wanting more.

She reflected a moment about how sad it was that the Chosen One, or Ron-san as he still preferred her to call him, only had the _one _child, and he had not wanted her to follow his examples in ways of the ninja. He had always said that it was enough for his sister to be a part of the culture, but he did not want his only daughter to be tempted into following the same path of the one that..._altered_ their destinies.

Yori had requested the honor to be allowed _make known _to the woman what she had done, but Stoppable himself had forbidden it, wanting to allow her to live the life _she _had chosen without any outside interference from _anyone_, especially anyone from Yamanouchi. He thought it would bring shame to the school and what it stood for.

She was startled out of her thought when the sound of the Alarm Gong rang out in the school: The alarm for the Shrine of the Lotus Blade.

Suddenly, a runner appeared to inform her, his Sensei, of the alarm's nature: The Lotus Blade had re-appeared in its cradle at the shrine which could only mean one of two things.

Either Ron Stoppable, the Chosen One, had perished and the Blade returned, awaiting someone else worthy enough to claim it…

Or Stoppable-san had relinquished his right as Guardian of the Blade because he no longer felt worthy.

She was not sure which of the two conditions would be the worst...for both meant a death in one form or another. Her eyes closed, lost in thought, thinking back…the last time he had felt that way was back when...

Her eyes shot open in terrified realization, she quickly brought out her cell phone to call the Han. It would be foolish to attempt to call Ron-san if what she thought had happened had taken place, so his sister would be the next person to call.

Completely baffled, Yori's mind tried to make sense of what she suspected had happened. But, it had been too long, so much silence since any of them had heard from…...the woman. How could they have met again? What could have brought them together after all this time?

She had to find this out and soon, or the consequences, were dire. For so many.

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To Be Continued...

Ned's last name is derived from the man that voiced his character. Eddie Deezen, who is famous for voicing Mandark, the arch foe of Dexter, from the classic Cartoon Network cartoon: "Dexter's Laboratory". They added an 'N' to Ed for Ned, so I added an 'N' replacing the 'D' in Deezen.

As always, if you have a question about something or you find an error, drop me a note or put it in a comment.


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